jji#«-! '-■' 





THE HOPE OF FRANCE 



LADIES OF GRECOURT 

The Smith Colleg'e Relief Unit 
in the Somme 



BY 

RUTH GAINES 

ATJTHOE OF "HELPING FRANCE," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED BT 
ANNA MILO UPJOHN 




NEW YORK 
E. p. BUTTON & COMPANY 

681 FIFTH AVENUE 



Copyright, 1920, 
By E. p. button & COMPANY 



All Rights Reserved *T\ / "x Q 



First printing May, 1920 



Printed in the United States of America 



©CU570275 



'You gave us dreams unnumbered. 
And life we had not known; 
And now, Alma Mater, 
We give vou back your own." 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I "For a Dream's Sake" 1 

II Overseas 18 

III Chateau Robecourt 25 

IV Neighbors 37 

V "Ladies of Grecourt" 51 

VI Molds of Service 64 

VII Christmas of the Liberation . . 84 

VIII The Kaiser-Schlacht 95 

IX "After the War" 114 

X Home to Grecourt 128 

XI Life among the Ruins 146 

XII Community Planning 165 

XIII The Village and the War . . . 182 

XIV The Village and the Future . . 198 
XV "The Fruit of the Tree of War" . 217 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Hope op France . . . Frontispiece, Colored 

PAGE 

"A Farm, both Imposing and Vast" ... 4 

A "Useless Mouth" 13 

"Dynamited Bridges" 27 

"Only the Church was Standing" ... 31 

"A Character. . . . Unshakable" ... 43 

"A Village op Large Properties" . . . 55 

"The Impress op the Ruins" 57 

"Canisy has its Stronghold" ..... 62 

"Our Store" 73 

"Alas for the Day!" 78 

"A Village Church" — Muille-Villette . 85 

Lucien 91 

"From Father to Son" 101 

"Christs Funereal" — Brouchy .... 121 

Lannoy Farm 125 

"Home to Grecourt" 128 

"Each in Her Turn" 144 

ix 



PAGB 



X List of Illustrations 

"They Distributed Brushes and Paste" . 159 

A Boy Scout 179 

A Towered Dove-cote, Buverchy . . . . 187 

"The Ruined Church" 199 

"Willows in the Marshes" 206 

"I Wish I were Younger" 212 

"Following the Bishop of Amiens" . . . 215 

Menhir, Eppeville 224 

The Pet Magpie 227 

Map 232 



LADIES OF GRECOURT 



LADIES OF GRECOURT 



CHAPTER I 

"for a dream's sake" 

MY parents were born of poor parents; 
they were poor also when they mar- 
ried, about 1893, having nothing for all their 
fortune but their health and their hands." In 
these words Laetitia Lefevre of the hamlet of 
Canisy, in the Department of the Somme, be- 
gins her "Memoires d'une Picarde envahie 
pendant la grande guerre." * "I was born," 
she continues, "one year after, and two years 
later I had a tiny sister. My father worked a 
little on farms in summer, and in winter in a 
sugar factory. As for my mother, she toiled at 
her profession of market gardening, as her fa- 
ther, as her grandparents, had done. When by 

* Unpublished MS. 



2 Ladies of Grecourt 

dint of privations and of labor, my parents had 
saved a little money, the idea came to Mama 
to work her garden for herself, and to sell for 
herself its produce to the extent of its capacity. 
So she commenced to peddle her vegetables 
with a wheelbarrow. But one day my father 
left his factory to work with her. 

"Meantime my sister and I began to grow 
up ; we went together to the only school of the 
little village of Canisy, where we were born; 
there we received a sufficiently good educa- 
tion, thanks to the help of a good teacher, and 
as soon as our parents judged that we were 
sufficiently educated, they took us from the 
school to aid them in the profession that we 
were to carry on. For my part, I should have 
preferred my studies, but a serious illness of 
my father's prevented me from continuing. 
As for my sister, she loved the soil. Of a 
stronger physique than I, she was already a 
hard worker at the age of eleven. 

"My parents had rented some land in bad 
condition; they bought an old horse, and an 
old wagon, to carry the vegetables; things 



"For a Dream's Sake" 3 

were beginning to go not so badly when my 
father fell ill. ... It was with a heavy heart 
that I quitted my books. But I saw my mother 
crying, and intelligence made me understand, 
although I was not yet eleven, that I must 
care for my father as well as my mother who 
worked in our marshes from morning till 
night. How many times have I not surprised 
my parents asking each other with anguish if 
they would not be obliged to sell everything 
to pay for the bread that their children lacked 
for the morrow! . . . But at length health 
slowly returned; with health, vigor and cour- 
age; and Papa set himself once again more 
courageously to work. We were then four 
strong. Several years passed thus, and toward 
1912 we were well installed; in 1911 my par- 
ents had bought a house both imposing and 
vast, our aged horse had been replaced by a 
young one, pretty and strong; we had also 
two cows. In short, the year 1914 found us 
in the full flower of prosperity; everything 
was beautiful in our gardens; we had superb 
vegetables, lovely fruits of all kinds, sleek cat- 



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"A FARM, BOTH IMPOSING AND VAST" 



"For a Dream's Sake" 5 

tie. I was then nineteen and my sister seven- 
teen. We had saved a little money, and we 
could endure without fear the evil days. 

"Then at a blow, oh, horror! in July, 1914, 
they talk cf war, j^^es, of war. An heir to the 
throne of Austria has been assassinated, and 
the old Emperor Francis Joseph wishes to 
punish the assassin by arms. The assassin ap- 
pears to be a Serbian, but is it possible that 
for one criminal war will be made upon an 
entire people? Oh, no, that cannot be! But 
alas! our papers inform us that Austria has 
declared war upon Serbia, — ^what is that little 
people to do against a great nation like Aus- 
tria? But they say again that Russia is mo- 
bilizing, that Germany, Germany who is not 
to be a stranger either in the drama of Aus- 
tria, is mobihzing also. And our France, 
what ought she to do on seeing all the prepara- 
tions of the other nations? She, she too, must 
mobihze. But she does not believe war pos- 
sible; oh, no, everything is going to come out 
right, and this will be nothing but a bad dream. 

"Alas! it is not a dream. The third of Au- 



6 Ladies of Grecourt 

gust, 1914, the German ambassador at Pans 
makes known to the French Government that 
a state of war exists between his country and 
ours. He quits Paris precipitately to cross 
the frontier." 

The call to arms, sounded by the bells of 
the village churches, the resistance, the inva- 
sion, the futile flight of the villagers, the two 
and a half years beneath the German yoke, 
these occupy the succeeding pages until we 
come to the enforced evacuation of the civil- 
ians under entry of February, 1917: 

"This time no longer any doubt that the 
enemy are going to quit us. But will that 
leave us tranquil? Oh, no! Everything has 
gone little by little, and to-day nothing re- 
mains to us except some pieces of furniture in 
the house which no doubt we shall have to let 
go to-morrow. For, without question, they 
are going to leave this land of Picardy, which 
they wished to make their own, — but we shall 
leave it too. Everything is quite ready; they 
can go. The French and the Allies will come ; 
they will find nothing but ruins, since the in- 



"For a Dream's Sake" 7 

vaders in their cruelty will leave them nothing 
else. We are not working any more; what is 
the use? The men are always forced to, but 
we women, — they wished us to take up our 
potatoes out of our cellars, but we refused, so 
they took them themselves. This afternoon it 
will be the turn of the hens and rabbits which 
remain. 

"February 15. The men have once more 
gone to work, but at noon the soldier who 
guards them says it is all over. 

"At three o'clock in the afternoon, the mayor 
comes to notify us that we are to be evacuated 
this night with seventy-five citizens of Canisy, 
and that we must provide ourselves with a 
bundle to carry by hand, and with food for 
one day. Oh, what cruelty! We have no 
longer a,ny courage. And it is without cour- 
age, and with eyes streaming v^^ith tears, that 
we tie up a little linen. Oh, to go, to leave 
everything, — for the little they have allowed 
us till now, v/e must abandon, and go, we know 
not whither. Every sound person goes. All 
the aged and the women with little children 



8 Ladies of Grecourt 

remain. What are they going to do with 
them? And when we asked some soldiers who 
were pitying .us : 'You/ they say, 'are to work ; 
the aged, the women and the children are to 
be an embarrassm.ent to the French who are 
coming and will encounter nothing but ruins 
and people incapable of doing anything for 
their own nourishment. For nothing will re- 
main of your houses; they will be blown up.' 
Shall we then never be delivered? How long 
shall endure this accursed war? 

'February 16. In the night, at two o'clock, 
we are summoned by a bell which gives the or- 
der to depart. We have no need of the bell 
because we have not slept. We present our- 
selves at headquarters, where we are subjected 
to being counted and requested to climb into 
wagons with our small luggage. On account 
of friendly [allied] aeroplanes overhead, we 
are forbidden to make any light; thus at a 
signal from the wagon master the wagons start 
slowly. There are cries and sobs from those 
who go and those who stay. It is the despair 
of parting and of not knowing whither one 



"For a Dream's Sake'* 9 

goes. We pass our house, already invaded by- 
soldiers. One last look, one last farewell, and 
it is the end. Poor, dear Canisy, when shall 
we return to thee, when and how?" 

Not in one village, but in all the villages of 
the Oise, the Aisne and the Somme from which 
the enemy was preparing his retreat in the 
spring of 1917, the tragedies described by this 
peasant girl of Canisy were being enacted, 
fifteen hundred and eighty square miles of ter- 
ritory were systematically depopulated and 
laid waste. 

During this period of pillage and evacua- 
tion, in this same month of February, 1917, 
the Germans, intensifying their submarine 
campaign, executed another of their acts of 
frightfulness. On Sunday, February 25, at 
half past ten at night, in a heavy sea, one hun- 
dred and fifty miles west of Fastnet, the pas- 
senger liner Laconia was torpedoed without 
warning. The sinking of the Laconia, subse- 
quent to our severing of diplomatic relations 
with Germany, was the "overt act" which 
brought America into the war. But to Smith 



10 Ladies of Grecourt 

College and to Canisy it held a significance of 
which each was unaware. In one of the thir- 
teen boats launched from the sinking ship 
were Elizabeth Hoy, a graduate of Smith in 
the class of 1898, and her mother, returning 
to England from their Christmas holidays in 
America. The lifeboats were awash with icy 
water, tossed by huge waves. A passenger 
addressed the captain of the submarine which 
had risen to the surface to survey its handi- 
work. "Don't you know," said he, "that you 
are torpedoing a boat containing women and 
children?" "Oh, they are all right for a few 
hours and a patrol boat will take them all up," 
the Captain replied. But in the five hours 
before Lifeboat No. 8 was picked up, seven 
persons had died in it of exposure. Among 
them were Mrs. Hoy and her daughter. 

Yet it might have been that the name of 
Elizabeth Hoy, "foully murdered on the high 
seas,"* would have meant no more to Smith 
College than to the world at large, had it not 

*Cable from her brother, Austin Y. Hoy, to President 
Wilson. 



"For a Dream's Sake" ii 

been for the patriotism of another alumna, 
Mrs. Harriet Boyd Hawes. Mrs. Hawes is 
an archaeologist by profession. Archaeology 
is a pursuit of constructive imagination, and 
one should not be surprised to find in her a 
dreamer indeed, but one whose dreams are 
afire. She became a nurse in our Spanish 
War, in the Greek wars, and again in the 
Great War. It was on her return from a five 
months' service in a French hospital on Corfu, 
in April, 1916, that — to quote her own words — 
she "had one week in Paris, which is to-day, 
I am sure, the most lovable city in the world. 
. . . There I saw the excellent work of the 
American Fund for French Wounded, and ac- 
quired some idea of the countless ways in which 
the French are helping their own unfortu- 
nates." In a preceding paragraph, she had 
spoken of the European struggle as "a dark- 
ness lit up by the gallantry of the French and 
by heroic individual sacrifices among all the 
combatants."* 

* "Bad Weather in the Adriatic," Smith Alumnae Quarterly, 
July, 1916. 



12 Ladies of Grecourt 

Two months after the torpedoing of the La- 
conia, in April, 1917, Mrs. Hawes spoke by 
invitation at an informal luncheon given by 
the Smith College Club of Boston. The sub- 
ject matter of that speech was a complete sur- 
prise to the guests ; but before the close of the 
luncheon, $4,000 had been pledged for the 
sending of a Smith College Hehef Unit to 
work for the women and the children — the 
"useless mouths" — ^left by the Germans in the 
ruins of devastated France, 

What was to be the aim of this Unit and 
how was it to operate? Mrs. Hawes answered 
these questions at Commencement time before 
the alumnae body in dramatic words. 

"Women of Smith College: 

"In a very cordial letter which I received 
one week ago, your president, Mrs. Alice Lord 
Parsons, invited me to tell the Alumnae Asso- 
ciation to-day about the plans for the Smith 
College Relief Unit. I have never approached 
a great opportunity with more serious mis- 
giving. 





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A "USELESS MOUTH" 
13 



14 Ladies of Grecourt 

"The point of view revealed by this meet- 
ing and my point of view are very different. 
To you the outlook is quite bright^ to me it is 
very dark indeed. To you the needs of the 
world, the needs of the College seem to be as 
usual ; to me nothing seems as usual. The war 
is the only thing on the horizon. . . . Last 
year I did not come to Commencement ; I had 
returned from Europe only a few weeks be- 
fore and would have been as a skeleton at a 
feast. This year when I was asked to tell 
about my experiences in Europe at our class 
supper I could not do it. For no one can come 
into contact with the Great War and not be 
permanently saddened by it. 

"In my ears the call to college women rings 
as clear as ever, perhaps clearer than ever be- 
fore — a call of need for their steadfastness, 
their moderation, their good sense, their special 
proficiency, their esprit de corpsj to help ac- 
tively in this trenjendous conflict for the 
right. . . . 

"But if the work needs us, we most cer- 
tainly need the work. What Smith College 



"For a Dream's Sake" 15 

needs more than anything else, more than any 
building or equipment, is a body of traditions. 
. . . We have one tradition of immeasurable 
value — ^you all know what it is — President 
Seelye; we have another mention of which I 
deeply regret has been dropped from our cata- 
log. In old times the catalog began (I quote 
from memory) , 'Smith College is situated in a 
town which for more than 150 years has been 
noted for the culture and refinement of its in- 
habitants.' But these two traditions have been 
made for us. We must now make for our- 
selves and no tradition can be better than that 
of united public service, ... 

''Now as to the plan. We must not be too 
definite. . . . We must be ready to pour our- 
selves into any mold of service that presents 
itself. ... A final plan for civilian relief has 
probably not yet been formed. . . . We need 
at least $30,000 for our Unit; $10,000 for cars 
and other upkeep ; $10,000 for support of the 
Unit, $10,000 for relief supplies. . . . 

"Does the plan as I have outlined it, three 
or four cars, eight chauffeurs, eight social 



i6 Ladies of Grecourt 

workers, a depot of distribution in touch with 
the French authorities, affiliation with the 
American Fund for French Wounded, com- 
mend itself to you? I am sure there must be 
doubts, uncertainties in your minds. I beg 
you to state them and I will answer them to the 
best of my abiHty. 

"But decide before you leave ISTorthampton 
whether you want the Unit to go, for delay is 
the diief abomination in war-time. You have 
it in your hands through your own friends and 
special representatives to make children live 
and smile again, to make old people, if they 
cannot smile, yet take heart in response to acts 
of friendship from strangers in place of the 
cruelty strangers have meted out to them in 
the last two years. If you find you can help 
more effectively through other channels and 
with as great good to the College, I shall re- 
turn happy to my country home, for I assure 
you that in offering to start this work of Smith 
women (and I hope other women) in France, 
and to leave my children for this purpose, I am 
as it were preparing my own execution. But 



"For a Dream's Sake" 17 

all is very well with my children, and there are 
other children across the sea with whom all is 
not well, all is horribly wrong, and their lives 
also are precious in the sight of God." 



CHAPTER II 

OVERSEAS 

ON the twelfth of August, 1917, the Ro- 
chambeau, as she had done practically 
every month since the beginning of the war, 
dropped anchor at the base of the white light- 
house that guards the entrance to the Garonne. 
Her voyage had been uneventful; her red- 
capped gunners at prow and stern had watched 
the gymnastic drills of the Smith College Re- 
lief Unit with as much attention as the un- 
vexed expanse of the sea. Even the moon had 
lighted us without treachery to our haven. As 
we voyaged the following morning up the river 
to Bordeaux, no scene could have been more 
peaceful. Red-winged iishing smacks, out- 
ward bound, golden harvests fringing the 
shores, trellised vineyards, silver poplars, me- 
dieval hill towns, — all washed in a haze which 
was yet tenacious enough to carry, motionless, 

18 



Overseas 19 

its stately galleons of clouds. Remote from 
war as an old print, or a reverie of summer, 
was the Garonne. 

To the Unit, fresh from an official farewell 
where they had been likened to the heroic wo- 
men of all time, and dedicated to a solemn 
college tradition, Bordeaux came as an anti- 
climax and a delight. Responsibilities, anxie- 
ties, — ^what are they to youth but the stuff of 
which adventure is made? Our seventeen 
members were gathered from fourteen classes, 
ranging from 1888 to 1914, but though the 
years had made of some of us archaeologists, 
doctors, teachers and social workers, we were 
all volunteers. To the cheers of fellow volun- 
teers of the American Ambulance and the 
American Engineers, we disembarked. 

At Bordeaux we were heavily loaded, hav- 
ing brought with us in trunks, duffles and 
boxes as much of our equipment as possible. 
This included camp beds, blankets, carpenter's 
tools, food, automobile parts and clothing for 
distribution. There had previously been for- 
warded by freight three automobiles (one 



20 Ladies of Grecourt 

White truck, one Ford truck and one Ford 
jitney), six portable houses and stoves for 
the same. These had all arrived safely in 
France, — a most fortunate circumstance, put- 
ting us at once on an independent, self-sup- 
porting basis. With money, housing, supplies 
and transportation — above all transportation 
— ^we could hope to be of use. 

In Paris, we were made welcome at the 
Headquarters of the American Fund for 
French Wounded. The French Government, 
through them, had already assigned us a post 
in the devastated area, an advance post, as such 
assignments went among women's units, fif- 
teen miles behind the front line trenches in the 
Somme. Famous for centuries in the annals 
of Picardy, its name was in itself a tradition 
and a challenge: Chateau Robecourt, Gre- 
court. Upon it depended for relief — as in 
feudal times had depended for defense — six- 
teen outlying villages. 

But although our sector was only seventy- 
five miles from Paris, it took a month of ef- 
fort to get the Unit there. In the first place. 



Overseas 21 

there were stringent war-time regulations. 
Our arrival, residence, ancestry, attributes, in- 
tentions and photographs had to be registered 
with the Prefecture in Paris. In return for 
this inforaiation we received in due course a 
permit of residence. We also registered our- 
selves with much more circumstance, spon- 
sored by Mrs, Dike and Miss Morgan of the 
Civilian Section of the American Fund for 
French Wounded, at the Ministry of War. 
Thence through the Third French Army to 
which we were to be assigned came also in time 
permits of travel and of circulation, both by 
train and automobile, to, from and in our vil- 
lages. A third set of permits must be secured 
for our chauffeurs, and a fourth for our cars 
themselves, to entitle us to the use of gasoline. 
For the transportation of freight another 
special permit was reserved. 

Meantime neither freight nor cars had come 
through from the seaport of St. Nazaire to 
Paris. The docks were choked with Ameri- 
can Army supplies, the railroads taxed beyond 
capacity in hurrying men and ammunition to a 



22 Ladies of Grecourt 

front which extended in a vast semicircle from 
the pivot of Verdun. About Ypres was rag- 
ing in those summer days the Battle of Flan- 
ders; from Verdun itself was being launched 
the successful offensive which recovered to the 
French Mort-Homme and Hill 304, "the key 
to the eastern front." Our headquarters on 
the Quai Voltaire shook often with troop 
trains passing underground to the Quai d'Or- 
say Station ; the staccato of cavalry, magnified 
by the sounding board of the Seine, disturbed 
our midnights ; avions even then started out of 
the northern sky to course like stars among the 
constellations; convoys, soup-kitchens, rum- 
bling artillery defiled eastward or westward 
in dimly seen lines. 

But of all this we were aware only at night. 
The Director and Assistant Director of the 
Unit found their days taken up with inter- 
views and consultations. The Executive Com- 
mittee of five scoured war-time Paris for ad- 
ditional supplies and merchandise. Hampers 
of Quimper ware for our own table, batteries 
de cuisine, lumber, sabots, galoshes, felt slip- 



Overseas 23 

pers, felt shoes with or without leather soles, 
wrappers, skirts, underwear, cloaks, capes, 
mufflers, kerchiefs, caps, sheets, blankets, sew- 
ing machines, wool, soap, toys, farm imple- 
ments and books, began to fill our store-room 
at the hotel. Larger consignments were sent 
direct to the depot of army transport, detailed 
for civilian relief, which undertook to deliver 
them at the Chateau. We also purchased 
through an agent our first livestock, consist- 
ing of six cows, three pigs, poultry and rab- 
bits, all to be shipped direct from Brittany to 
the Somme. 

The residue of uie Unit occupied itself in 
nursing, making surgical dressings, splints 
and special shoes for the wounded, pillows for 
hospital trains, and in packing or unpacking 
cases of supplies at the ware-rooms of the 
American Fund. We had ceased to be specta- 
tors. Like all the world around us, the ten- 
tacles of the War had sucked us in. 

Meantime, our Director had been taken by 
the American Fund for French Wounded on 
a tour of inspection to our ruined estates. She 



24 Ladies of Grecourt 

came back brimming with an enthusiasm which 
admitted no further obstacle. On the night 
of August thirty-first, she and five chauffeurs 
boarded a train for St. Nazaire, where our 
automobiles and our houses were still held. 
"Our property," she wrote later, "was found 
on a quay, on a freight car, and stacked in the 
freight yard. To get the cases together, un- 
ship and put together the cars, haul them to 
the garage and get them in running condition, 
took four days' very hard work." But three 
days later, we saw the cars draw up before our 
hotel in Paris. At last we were ready to start 
for the front. 



CHAPTER III 

CHATEAU ROBECOUET 

THE ancient signorial fief of Grecourt, 
consisting of an old Chateau with its 
enclosure of about six hectares, and of seven- 
teen hectares of tillable land," owed allegiance 
in feudal times to the Marquisate of Nesle. It 
dates, we read, only from the eleventh century. 
It never had a chart of enfranchisement as a 
commune, but it was formed into a parish, 
with its own church, its priest and its tithes, 
on St. Matthew's Day, the twenty-first of 
September, 1239. 

In September, 1917, its present chatelaine, 
the Baronne de Robecourt, transferred, for the 
time being, its "precarious title" to us. 
"Madame," she wrote to the Director of the 
Unit, "I am so happy that what remains of 
my Chateau of Robecourt, which I love so 
much, should be under your protection. That 

25 



26 Ladies of Grecourt 

consoles me a little for the great sorrow I 
feel in seeing it as good as ruined by those 
Barbarians. I admire so much the good you 
are doing in coming to the help of this Poor 
Country and of its unhappy inhabitants. . . . 
Please accept, Madame, the assurance of my 
distinguished consideration. Baronne de 
Robecourt." 

In those feudal days, when our tiny estate 
was itself the seat of civil strife between the 
rival houses of Kobecourt and of Grecourt, 
the approach to it was not more adventurous 
than ours during the Great War. The Wood 
of Clovis, the Ford of the Wolves, the Field 
of Battle, the Captain's Close, — these names 
of medieval encounter could be pointed out 
in our day as the sites of German batteries, of 
dynamited bridges, of encampments and aero- 
dromes. Nor was any feudal seneschal sum- 
moned from his sleep more glad to let down 
the drawbridge for his overlord than Marie, 
the faithful concierge of the Baroness, to open 
the gates on our arrival to us. It made no 
difference that the hour was nearly midnight. 



Chateau Robecourt 27 

Coffee must be served. And the villagers of 
Grecourt, numbering twenty-five women and 
three little children, came from their shelters 
in the stables to bid us welcome to our home. 
The start from Paris had been made that 








"DYNAMITED BRIDGES" 

morning with the cars all loaded to capacity 
and carrying six pioneer members of the Unit. 
The road lay through Chantilly, Senlis, the 
lovely Forest of Compiegne, and from Com- 
piegne itself up the valley of the Oise to Noy- 
on. Camions, marching regiments, aero- 
planes overhead, gave a warlike aspect to the 



28 Ladies of Grecourt 

military highway that stretched northward, 
hard and fit, beneath its arcade of elms. So, 
two thousand years ago, ran Caesar's road 
linking Amiens to Rome. But the unbroken 
forests of that day had given place to rolling 
harvests brightened by poppies and to terra- 
cotta villages embowered in orchards and the 
smoke of burning leaves. At intervals, blue 
uniformed sentries stepped out to halt the 
cars, demanding safe conducts. Near Noyon, 
the ravages of combat became evident. We 
saw for the first time a trench, a dugout, trees 
shredded by bombardment, wire entangle- 
ments, wooden crosses brave with the tricolor, 
the empty shells of villages gaping like skulls. 
Our party drew into Noyon in good order, 
and halted in the square before the as yet un- 
destroyed, beautiful Hotel de Ville. There the 
first accident befell us. One of the cars re- 
fused to proceed. The French army, which 
we were soon to know so well, came to the 
rescue. At dusk the Unit was once more under 
way, headed hj a military camion to which the 
load of the crippled car had been transferred. 



Chateau Robecourt 29 

Although the twilights linger above the plain 
of Picardy, darkness overtook us, and each 
crossroad, so plainly marked in day time with 
enormous lettering, had to be deciphered with 
a lantern. In all the silent stretch of country, 
there was no friendly lighted village where one 
might stop at a tavern to inquire the way. 
Here and there was a huddle of ruins, or a 
bivouac, or a wood, doubly dark, but for the 
most part only the vague plain, the myriad 
stars and the thread of the road between. So 
the Unit came to Grecourt. 

It camped that night on blankets on the 
floors of the new haraqiies the Army had al- 
ready erected for it. With the first light, it 
was up and out for a survey. The baraques 
themselves, three in a row, were placed on the 
edge of a little meadow which had formerly 
been a semi-circular lawn. On the east, the 
ruined esplanade of the Chateau led down to 
it. As one climbed over the debris of fallen 
walls into the unroofed interior, one looked 
through the frame of an ample doorway across 
this greensward to a broken sundial, from 



30 Ladies of Grecourt 

which radiated the allej^s of the wood. It was 
a noble wood of oak and chestnut and dappled 
plane trees, and even after the leaves fell, 
perennially green with ivy and mistletoe. But 
it had been shamefully used by its German 
conquerors. Corvees of Russian prisoners had 
felled and laid waste until half of it was re- 
duced to scrub. Here and there in the under- 
growth were prone trunks of giant oaks sawed 
in sections, ready to be exported to Germany. 

The avenue of cypresses and poplars lead- 
ing from the road to the Chateau gate had 
suffered more, because more senselessly, from 
German vandalism. Half the trees were down 
and laid symmetrically away from the thor- 
oughfare. Even the poplars along the foot- 
path from the Calvary to the tiny church had 
been lopped. As for the village itself, only the 
church was standing, and the remnant of its 
inhabitants were wondering where they could 
go next, since they had been ordered by the 
Army to vacate their quarters in the stables 
to us. 

On this point, we reassured them. We had 



Chateau Robecourt 



31 



for housing the three baraques, each of two 
rooms, already mentioned, six portable houses 




"ONLY THE CHURCH WAS STANDING" 

in prospect, an orangerie of some forty by 
twenty feet with a good roof, albeit the glass 
of its great windows lay shivered to atoms, a 



32 Ladies of Grecourt 

small room with a door and a window almost 
intact built beside a greenhouse, and two door- 
less cells in the greenhouse itself, — relics of the 
luxurious baths which the German officers had 
installed therein. We had also the cellar of 
the Chateau. The greenhouse was a skeleton 
of twisted iron. The cellar seeped from tons 
of wet debris above; the explosion which had 
wrecked the Chateau had laid bare almost an 
entire side, the ceiling was shored up, and all 
the dark interior was fitted with rough chicken- 
wire bunks and filled with straw. For even in 
its ruins, the Chateau was listed on military 
maps as capable of housing two hundred men. 
As we regarded the devastation within our 
own gates, we saw for ourselves the purpose 
of the enemy. Mile after mile, village after 
village, the engineering corps of the retreating 
army had prepared this reception for the vic- 
torious pursuers; ruins in which they must 
shelter themselves as best they could from the 
rains of summer and the snows of winter, which 
they must share with a civilian population, 
homeless and starving. 



Chateau Robecourt 33 

A squad of soldiers, loaned by the Army, 
was soon at work cleaning and repairing for 
us. The windows of the or anger ie were cov- 
ered with oiled paper and it became dispen- 
sary, garage, carpenter shop, gymnastic hall 
and general assembly place until other room 
was provided. The cellar was cleared and 
whitewashed. Here were installed our dairy, 
our pantry and our supplies of all kinds. The 
problem of a kitchen was solved in those early 
days by Marie, who had a range still in work- 
ing order in the hut she had built into the 
ruins of the lodge. She had been forced to 
cook for the Germans; she cooked for us. 
Maurice, her sixteen-year-old son, heated 
water in a huge cauldron for our morning use. 
From the nearest village, about a mile away, 
came each day Zelie, our kitchen maid, Mme. 
ISTogent who washed for us under superhuman 
difficulties, Mme. Topin who sawed and 
chopped our wood, and Leandre, the boy who 
herded our cows. Grecourt itself furnished 
that most faithful helper of all our household 
(for Marie belonged not to Grecourt, but to 



34 Ladies of Grecourt 

the Chateau), Mme. Pottier. A typical 
Piearde, broad in humor, familiar, brusque, 
but dependable even should the heavens fall — 
ready, as her ancestors have it in one of their 
proverbs, to receive them on her pike — such 
was Marie Pottier, our milkmaid, factotum 
and friend. 

But it was long before our portable houses 
were up, or our own quarters ready for the 
winter — in fact, they never were ready — that 
we welcomed the dependents whom the French 
Government and the Baronne de Robecourt 
had so trustingly confided to us, to the hos- 
pitality of our domain. On the twenty-first 
of September came round the fete of St. Mat- 
thew, for seven centuries the patron of Gre- 
court. It was not the least part of our good 
fortune that we could make its celebration our 
first official act. 

The cures of the entire countryside having 
been called to the colors or taken as hostages 
by the Germans, their places in the churches 
were filled by the devoted chaplains of the 
French army of whom the world has heard so 



Chateau Robecourt 35 

much. Privates in the ranks, pausing in the 
attack only to administer the sacrament to the 
dying, nurses, or Red Cross stretcher bearers, 
they added to their duties the spiritual care of 
the civilians in the forlorn villages where their 
regiments might be billeted on leave. One of 
these promised to come from Nesle for the 
mass. 

The service had been advertised in all our 
sixteen villages by the Unit which, accompany- 
ing the doctors on their rounds, sang the 
hymns chosen for the occasion in the deserted 
streets. But the villagers themselves cut the 
rank-grown weeds in the cemetery and 
trimmed the interior of the church with au- 
timin leaves and flowers. The day was clear. 
The roads were dry. And from every quarter, 
from every shack and hovel, the country 
people walked to Grecourt. They filled the 
little church, and overflowed into the quiet 
churchyard. It was to be the first mass in 
three years I 

Soon the chaplain arrived in his soldier 
blue. Over it he slipped his vestments, ar- 



36 Ladies of Grecourt 

ranged the symbols of the Faith upon the al- 
tar, and began the invocation. No eyes were 
dry in that audience; the prayer books, saved 
among the few treasures in the confusion of 
flight, were blurred from sight. But lips 
moved in unison to well remembered words. 
The hymns, the responses, offered by the quav- 
ering voices of women and children, opposed 
the sound of cannon not far distant toward St. 
Quentin. "lis ne I'auront, jamais, jamais, ce 
pays des prieux, notre France," they sang tri- 
umphant, and then, as if beseeching for hus- 
bands, sons and brothers out yonder: "Sauvez, 
sauvez la France au nom du Sacre Coeur!" 



CHAPTER IV 

NEIGHBOES 

AMONG the neighbors who came to the 
Fete of St. Matthew was M. le Com- 
mandant Monin, in charge of our sector, with 
headquarters at Guiscard. To him we owed 
already our baraques, our water supply, our 
squad of soldiers, and the orders which had 
gone to every officer throughout the Zone to 
respect and aid "les dames Americaines" at- 
tached to their own army, the Third Army of 
France. His heart was quite won by the ser- 
vice. "You have begun right," he exclaimed. 
"Your doctors care for the sick bodies, and you 
who are Protestants" — this seemed to astonish 
him most — "have now taken thought for their 
souls." Thenceforth, there seemed to be no 
courtesy, great or small, which the Command- 
ant did not delight to show us. Having called 
one day and found us without fires because we 
had no wood, he sent over a camion load. The 

37 



38 Ladies of Grecourt 

Germans in the prison camps were set to work 
to make us tables and bureaus. At Christmas 
time eight hundred francs found their way to 
us from his purse, to be expended "just for 
fooKshness." They gladdened many a child 
with candy and toys. 

But the extent of our dependencies, cover- 
ing thirty-six square miles, gave us at Ham, 
the advantage of another Commandant of like 
kindly heart, M. le Commandant Moret. 
Fortunate it was for us that our immediate 
superiors in the Army were thus well disposed. 
We profited, of course, from the prestige of 
our sponsors, the American Fund for French 
Wounded. By them we had been accredited 
to Captain Pallain who was in charge of the 
service of reconstruction of the Third French 
Army. This was a branch of the army as 
definitely organized as any other. To offset 
the German corps of destruction, were created 
French corps of reconstruction. A statistical 
survey of the devastated area reclaimed in the 
spring of 1917 was one of its first cares, and 
was intended to serve a double purpose: to 



Neighbors 39 

acquaint the army of occupation with its re- 
sources, and to form the first-hand testimony 
on which should rest demands for indemnity. 
It is a commentary on the good faith with 
which the Army received us that the mihtary 
map of our own sector was entrusted to us. 
The French army found, as the enemy had 
intended, its ruins encumbered by human be- 
ings literally without food, clothing or shelter, 
suffering from long slavery and from the 
shock of recent bereavement. It did not need 
to take the testimony of the inhabitants to 
establish these facts; the very stones of the 
ruins rose up to testify. For example, near 
us in the twenty-five communes of the Kom- 
mandantur of Holnon was posted the follow- 
ing proclamation : 

"Holnon, le 20 Juillet 1915. 
"Tous les ouvriers et les femmes et les en- 
fants de quinze ans sont obliges de faire 
travaux des champs tous les jours, aussi di- 
manche de quatre heures du matin jusqu' a 
huit heures du soir (temps fran9ais). 



40 Ladies of Grecourt 

"Recreation, une demi-heure au matin, une 
heure a midi et une demi-heure apres-midi. 

"La contravention sera punie a la maniere 
suivante : 

"1° Les faineants ouvriers seront combines 
pendant la recolte en compagnie des ouvriers 
dans une caserne sous inspection de caporaux 
allemands. Apres la recolte les faineants se- 
ront emprisonnes 6 mois; le troisieme jour la 
nourriture sera seulement du pain et de I'eau, 

"2° Les femmes faineantes seront exilees a 
Holnon pour travailler. 

"3° Apres la recolte, les femmes seront 
emprisonnees six mois. 

"Les enfants faineants seront punis de 
coups de batons. 

"De plus, le Commandant se reserve de pu- 
nir les faineants ouvriers de 20 coups de batons 
de tous les jours. 

"Les ouvriers de la commune de Vendelles 
sont punis severement. 

"Afficher 

Gloss 
Colonel et Commandant." 



Neighbors 41 

Toward these inhabitants the army of de- 
liverance at once assumed the responsibilities 
of government. Food was hurried in ; private 
charities were facilitated in large distributions 
of clothing and household necessities; details 
of soldiers under military architects began to 
repair the ruins or to erect temporary houses ; 
mihtary doctors took over the care of pubhc 
health, military labor cleared and leveled and 
plowed the battlefields. Everywhere a quota 
of army transportation, by rail and by camion, 
was allotted to civilian needs. For the needs of 
the civilians were identical with the needs of 
the army: housing and food. Before the war, 
a fourth of the wheat of France had grown in 
the northern departments ; it was essential that 
this harvest grow again. 

Closely following the army came the civilian 
authorities. All of our villages lay in the ar- 
rondissement of Peronne. We therefore fell 
under the jurisdiction of the Sous-prefet at 
Peronne, and through him under that of the 
Prefet at the capital of the Department, 
Amiens. But a liaison officer between the 



42 Ladies of Grecourt 

civil and the military masters of government 
was essential. For instance, the sous-prefet 
of St. Quentin, which together with one-tenth 
of the territory of the Department was still 
in the hands of the enemy, was carrying on 
his administration at Ham. Army sectors cut 
into the ancient alignments of communes, 
army orders superseded civil law. Amiens it- 
self, so far as military law was concerned, was 
under British rule. 

To meet the complexities of the hour, a 
special representative of the Ministry of the 
Interior was sent to each of the departments 
reclaimed by the spring drive of 1917. For- 
tunately for us, the special sous-prefet of the 
Somme, as he was styled, had his headquarters 
only five miles from us at Nesle. More for- 
tunately, he was an able, brave and public 
spirited gentleman. Upon M. Quellien de- 
volved among other duties the coordination of 
relief. 

As early as December, 1914, the Govern- 
ment, then sitting in Bordeaux, had allotted 
pensions to the civihan victims of the invasion. 




"A CHARACTER . . . UNSHAKABLE" 



43 



44 Ladies of Grecourt 

The declaration made by the Government to 
the Senate and the Chamber, advocating this 
measure, contains these words: 

"It will not suffice us to salute the victims 
fallen on the field of battle. We should un- 
cover ourselves also before those victims, non- 
combatant, innocent, whom up till now the 
laws of war have protected, and whom, in an 
attempt to terrify a character which has re- 
mained and will remain unshakable, the enemy 
has captured or massacred. . . . France will 
right these ruins, counting surely upon the 
payment of the indemnities which we shall de- 
mand, and meantime upon the aid of contribu- 
tions which the nation as a whole will pay, 
proud amid the distress of one part of its 
children, to fulfill the obligation of its common 
responsibility. So, repudiating the form of 
charity, which impHes condescension, the State 
proclaims on her part the duty of reparation 
in favor of those who have been the victims in 
their property of acts of war, and it will fulfill 
its duty to the furthest limits that the financial 
capacity of the country will permit." 



Neighbors 45 

So it was that every month the families of 
our villages went to Ham or to Nesle, to col- 
lect their allocation^ or to the mayors to regis- 
ter claims against their future "'Indemnite de 
Guerre/^ The former supplied the equivalent 
of bare living, the latter was good on paper 
for stores of furniture, or agricultural imple- 
ments, or temporary houses held by the special 
sous-prefet in his warehouses in Nesle. But 
transportation was inadequate. The long an- 
ticipated allied offensive toward St. Quentin, 
with its massing of troops and of ammunition, 
the Italian reverses which sent its hundreds of 
thousands storming in the opposite direction, 
the taking over of our lines by the British and 
the withdrawal of the French, — among these 
events the wonder is that any civilian supplies 
came through. 

It was chiefly to supplement supplies and 
transport that private agencies had been in- 
vited by the Government to cooperate with it 
in the devastated areas. In our own vicinity 
there were already five societies at work: the 
Secours d'Urgence at Roye, the Union des 



46 Ladies of Grecourt 

Femmes de France at Nesle and at Ham, the 
French War Emergency Fund, known as the 
(Euvre Anglaise, at Nesle, the Friends and 
the American Red Cross. All of these like 
ourselves had their sectors assigned in the first 
instance by the Army, and continued to work 
by favor of safe conducts and permits re- 
newed by Captain Pallain at frequent inter- 
vals. We were also answerable to M. Quel- 
lien, who called the directors together for 
monthly conferences and required of us 
monthly reports. M. Vernes, the representa- 
tive of the Union des Femmes de France at 
Nesle, was the presiding officer of these con- 
ferences. He and Mme, Vernes are typical 
of the comparatively little known war workers 
of France. Far beyond military age himself, 
his two sons were with the colors ; one of them 
had been killed. His factories had been de- 
stroyed. He was one of the agents sent by 
the Government on its first tour of inspection 
after the German retreat of 1917. He came 
up through Noyon, Chaulnes, Roye, Nesle, 



Neighbors 47 

Ham and Guiscard, and he came back to live 
in the ruins of ISTesle with his wife. 

Each of the relief societies, except the 
Friends and the American Red Cross, had a 
definite number of villages in its charge, so 
that there was no overlapping. In its assigned 
area, each worked out for itself its system of 
relief. All were on the same footing in one 
respect ; none attempted actual reconstruction, 
but relied upon army shelters and army re- 
pairs, supplying, however, tarred paper, glass 
and glass substitutes and limited quantities of 
lumber to such as could use them. Thus some- 
times a soldier returning home on permission 
repaired a roof, or set a pane of glass in the 
otherwise dark room where his wife or his 
mother had taken refuge. 

But the American Ked Cross and the 
Friends had a building program in two neigh- 
boring groups of villages, and in addition the 
latter came into two of our villages, Hom- 
bleux and Esmery-Hallon, to set up Govern- 
ment baraques. The chief function of the 



48 Ladies of Grecourt 

American Red Cross, however, was the accu- 
mulating in warehouses and the distributing to 
all rehef agencies of large stores of supplies. 
Two of these warehouses were located in our 
district, one at Ham and one at Nesle. It 
was in November that the stores began to ar- 
rive, and it was a red letter day for the Smith 
Unit when Mr. W. B. Jackson, the Ked Cross 
delegate, convoyed the first camion load of 
hundreds of sheets and blankets to the Cha- 
teau. For between the time of our arrival in 
France and that event, practically all the relief 
supplies of America had been pooled by the 
Red Cross in one vast reservoir, from which it 
undertook distribution to all accredited relief 
agencies throughout the world. This momen- 
tous policy diverted special donations from 
designated objects, but on the other hand it 
opened enormous resources. If we did not get 
the boxes of clothing packed and addressed to 
us by enthusiastic college clubs, we received 
from the Red Cross in their stead money, 
pumps, plows, medicines : in short every requi- 
sition that could be honored by the Paris head- 



Neighbors 49 

quarters, and transportation and wholesale al- 
lotments from the local warehouses. More 
than that, we have had from that day to this, 
the invaluable counsel and support of Mr. 
Jackson, now Major Jackson, Director of the 
Field Service of the American Red Cross in 
France. A man who graced his position with 
knowledge and courage, it is such as he who 
have made the good name of the American 
Ked Cross. 

We had other neighbors as well, our own 
boys. There were the Eleventh American En- 
gineers, building railroads for the British at 
Le Catelet, aviators attached to the French 
scouting escadrille in our rear and the drivers 
of the American Ambulance to be met on al- 
most any road. There were the Canadian 
Foresters in a moated old Chateau toward 
Noyon, British officers, French infantry, ar- 
tillery and blue devils billeted in our villages, 
newspaper reporters who astonished us by 
dropping in to tea on their way to and from 
the front, and finally, as curiosity grew, celeb- 
rities like Gaston Deschamps and Coningsby 



50 Ladies of Grecourt 

Dawson, who have given the Smith College 
Unit a place in their books on the war. Each 
and all contributed something tangible to our 
happiness, from the Ambulance boy who 
walked one December day from Albert and 
back again, to bring us his allowance of sugar, 
to the foresters who saw to it that wood was 
not lacking for our fires, nor stoves to burn it 
in. Even in the days of "before the war," 
when Mme. la Baronne's picture galleries and 
dinners and hunting parties were the talk of 
the countryside, Chateau Robecourt never en- 
tertained more hospitably than in its ruins un- 
der its American chatelaines. 



CHAPTER V 

*^^LADIES OF GRECOURT^" 

THE military map given to the Unit by 
the Army bore this legend: "Secteur 
Somme Est, Cartographic 72, 10 Aout, 1917. 
Territoires Reconquis. ifitat des Localites. 
Population et Capacites des Cantonnements a 
la date du 10 Aout, 1917." 

Our own villages are thus listed: 

Capacity Population 

1 Bacquencourt . . . men 300 (Belongs to commune 

of Hombleux) 
15 



2 Breuil ... men 1^000 inhabitants 

horses 350 population 

3 Euverchy ....... m. 200 inhab. 

h. 100 pop. . 

4> Douilly . ., m. 450 inhab. 

h. 650 pop. . 

5 Eppeville ...... m. 1,100 inhab. 

h. 200 pop. . 

6 Esmery-Hallon . m. 1,500 inhab. 

h. 400 pop. . 

7 Grecourt m. 200 inhab. 

h. 50 pop. . 

8 Muille-Villette . . m. 800 inhab. 

h. 100 pop. . 
51 



150 

25 

101 

18 

582 

500 

914 

265 

1,029 

15 

63 

46 

S79 



52 Ladies of Grecourt 

Capacity Population 

9 Villette . .'. .(. .(. . m. 150(Belongs to commune 

h. 120 of Muille- Villette) 

10 Canisy ..!>•••••• m. 400 (Belongs to commune 

h. 150 of Hombleux) 

11 Aubigny\ m. 900 inhab. ....... 282 

12 BrouchyJ ... h. 780 pop >. ... 559 

13 OfFoy , m. 1,400 inliab. . 135 

h. 450 pop. . .,. .,. . . 393 

14 Sancourt ....... m. 150 inhab. ...... 26 

h. 80 pop. ........ 389 

15 Verlaines .... .i.. m. 150 (Belongs to commune 

h. 60 of Eppeville) 

16 Hombleux .. m. 450 inhab. ...i. .. 383 

h. 350 pop. .., 1,021 

Taking this map as our guide, we set forth 
to investigate our ruins. Delays in the arrival 
of our relief supplies, distressing in themselves, 
— for there was no need of investigation to 
demonstrate the needs of the community — 
gave us time to become acquainted with the 
inhabitants. Our two doctors, who refused to 
be discouraged by their lack of medicines, led 
the way in making house-to-house visits. Both 
spoken fluent French ; in fact. Dr. Kelly, who 
was not an alumna of the College, was brought 
up and educated in France. The head of the 
social service department, herself a refugee 
from Belgium, in the summer of 1914, was 



"Ladies of Grecourt" 53 

also in a position to understand from experi- 
ence the misfortunes of the villagers. 

The map gives the conditions in epitome. 
Comparing the population of before and after 
the War, one sees that out of 5,580 inhabitants, 
there were left in our villages in August, 1917, 
1,740. These consisted, as has been said, of 
the old, the feeble and the children. Of these 
latter, we learned later, there were about six 
hundred under fifteen years of age. The fig- 
ures again form an accurate gauge of the 
amount of destruction in each village. Take 
Breuil for example. The population is given 
as 150, the inhabitants as 15. One tenth, then, 
of its former citizens existed in the ruins. And 
yet in these ruins were quartered nearly ten 
times the normal civilian population, soldiers 
who swarmed in half demolished barns or in 
the enclosure of the dynamited Chateau. Des- 
titution, overcrowding, insanitation, these are 
the familiar catchwords of social service every- 
where. 

But what a background! In Breuil, the 
ruins were complete. On each lintel still 



54 Ladies of Grecourt 

standing may be seen to this day the circles 
and the crosses chalked there by the Prussians, 
the circle being the order to poison the wells, 
the cross to burn the buildings. The orders 
were carried out. In addition, Breuil, situ- 
ated in the marshes encompassing Nesle, be- 
came a strategic point in its assault. Church, 
school. Chateau, houses, nothing but a jagged 
mass of bricks was left to mark its site. Bu- 
verchy, its neighbor to the south, is given on 
the map as having had a population of 101. 
Twenty-five, or one fourth only of its inhabi- 
tants, remained. Its ruins tell the story of the 
conflict that raged on the former highroad 
from Nesle to Noyon for the possession of the 
bridge just beyond the village church over the 
Canal du Nord. Only one house was left 
practically undamaged, that of an alleged 
German spy. 

At the other extremity of our domains, 
high up on the hills that look toward St. Quen- 
tin, stood Douilly. Its population of 582 
souls had been reduced to 18o On that August 
day when the census was taken, the fields about 



"Ladies of Grecourt" 



55 



it were red with poppies, as in March, 1917, 
they had been red with blood. The summit of 




"A VILLAGE OF LARGE PROPERTIES" 

the hill was crowned with a gaunt chimney or 
two, indicating former distilleries of sugar 
beets ; the great farms — for Douilly was a vij- 



56 Ladies of Grecourt 

lage of large properties — gaped in empty 
quadrangles. Wherever shelter above ground 
was to be had, it was given over to artillery 
and cavalry; the remnant of the population, 
as their ancestors had done in many another 
war, lived underground. Here and there 
along the village street a cellar-way and a 
length of smoking stove pipe marked their re- 
treat. Sancourt, our other hill town beyond 
Ham, had also suffered severely, though here 
the old church proudly faced the eastern front. 
Eppeville, Muille-Viilette, Canisy, Esmery- 
Hallon, Grecourt, on the map one can read 
their fate at a glance. Of all our villages, 
Brouchy with its hamlet of Aubigny, and Of- 
foy had suffered least; Offoy because it had 
been chosen one of the centers of refuge into 
which inhabitants of neighboring communes 
were herded while the latter were being de- 
stroyed, and Brouchy perhaps because of its 
sheltered position off the main line of march. 
Be that as it may, Offoy, Brouchy, Sancourt, 
Canisy, Muille-Villette, Grecourt and Hom- 
bleux had left to them in 1917 what the vil- 



^'Ladies of Grecourt" 57 

lagers prized more than their own homes, 
their churches. No other public buildings 
were standing, schools, town halls, factories, 
railroad stations, even the tracks and the ties 
in many places, had been destroyed. 



"THE IMPRESS OF THE RUINS" 

The impress of these ruins, cropping like 
wreck-strewn reefs out of the dun expanse of 
the plain, or etched as we turned home to 
Grecourt upon a flaming sky, was of an in- 
describable loneliness. At night, in the surf of 



58 Ladies of Grecourt 

cannon breaking rhythmically, ghostly leaves 
falling, falling from the plane trees, or, sud- 
denly, the shriek of a train nearing the end of 
its perilous run from Amiens to Ham, that 
loneliness found voice. Small wonder that 
Marie, whose husband was fighting on the 
Chemin des Dames, ran out from time to time 
to view the horizon, or to lay her ear to the 
ground. Were the lines holding or breaking? 
Were the Germans coming back? 

Yet in her concern, Marie was untypical of 
the villagers as we saw them. Whatever their 
fate had been or was to be, they accepted it. 
Communal hfe was organized as usual. The 
postman — or postwom.an — went her rounds. 
The mayors proper being for the most part 
hostages, soldiers or refugees, acting mayors 
were elected in their places. Three of these 
were women. They were both conscientious 
and efficient. The information they gave us 
formed the basis of our social survey, in the 
course of which we learned from a personal 
angle the ruin wrought by the enemy. No 
family but had its quota of members in 



"Ladies of Grecourt" 59 

slavery "avec les boches." And yet, no family 
but had taken up anew the struggle for exist- 
ence. Gardens had been worked with trench 
spades, furniture of a sort had been salvaged; 
they anticipated a winter of privation, but a 
winter "at home." 

In short, to them war seemed a fact of na- 
ture. We ourselves were one of its phe- 
nomena. Germans, Russian prisoners, Scotch, 
English, red-fezzed laborers, Indian princes, 
impassive Annamites, their own soldiers from 
unknown provinces, — all had defiled along the 
roads of Picardy, and now, late coming, we. 
From time immemorial the nations had thus 
passed; the Celts who have left one of their 
rude menhirs in Eppeville, Roman legionaries 
buried in military cemeteries in Brouchy and 
Villette, the Merovingians, the hosts of Char- 
lemagne. It was from Amiens that Peter 
the Hermit preached ■ the first crusade, and 
from Ham and Nesle and Roye and from their 
fiefs, our villages, that knights and squires fol- 
lowed their feudal lords during a span of two 
hundred years to deliver Jerusalem. Blondel, 



6o Ladies of Grecourt 

troubadour of Richard Coeur de Lion, was 
born in Nesle, and Nesle itself, that poor ruin, 
was known from those days until the Revolu- 
tion as "Nesle the Noble," the first Marquisate 
of the realm. 

Some say that the crucifixes at our cross- 
roads were set there by these pious crusaders, 
to mark the stages of their march to the sea. 
Others aver that these, together with the 
churches, constituted places of asylum for the 
fugitives in that troubled country, as the 
chronicles have it, "never for a day without 
war." The Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings 
of France, the English and the Spaniards 
overran with fire and sword this plain. It was 
Jean of Luxembourg, Seigneur of Ham, who 
sold Jeanne d'Arc for a hundred pieces of 
gold. It was the Duke of Burgundy who dese- 
crated the Collegiate church of Nesle in 1472 
with a "brave butchery," and quitted that con- 
quered and flaming city crying: "Behold the 
fruits borne by the tree of war!" In our day, 
the Germans bettered these theii* exemplars. 
For no military reason, they too violated the 



"Ladies of Grecourt" 6i 

churches, profaned the cemeteries and muti- 
lated the roadside calvaries. 

To us who saw with the eyes of strangers 
the often ragged and dirty denizens of the 
ruins, only their level regard, their upright 
bearing recalled their past. They are known 
to-day by the same names that one finds five 
centuries ago; serf or seigneur, in the end the 
same blood runs in their veins. In some stable, 
you may come upon an altar piece, an original 
of the fourteenth century, perhaps, or upon a 
copper plaque etched with the arms of Per- 
onne. And Madame, following your eye, will 
say simply, "Oh, yes, they have been in my 
family always. I saved them in my sack." Or 
the Mayoress of Buverchy, sitting on a bench 
in the shed she calls her home, will tell you, 
with many an animated gesture, of the books 
they had in their library which narrated the 
history of Buverchy "when it was the great 
toivn of Caletot." These alas! with the village 
records, with the very villages themselves, are 
lost. 

The wonder grows that any land so historic 



62 



Ladies of Grecourt 



should have any record or any architectural 
monument or any inhabitants left. Not only 




"CANiSY HAS ITS STRONGHOLD" 

were there played out here the dramas of 
Froissart; each foot of ground formerly be- 



"Ladies of Grecourt" 63 

longed to an overlord, temporal or spiritual. 
Long ago they fought one another to ruins 
which may be traced in eight of our villages. 
Canisy has its stronghold of the eleventh cen- 
tury, Esmery-Hallon its Priory of Bonneuil. 
"I know not how it is in your country," said 
one of our mayors one day, "but I suppose 
it is much the same as here, where every local- 
ity has its noble family taking the place of the 
ancient seigneur." Custom, tradition, these 
have become here in Picardy the racial monu- 
ment. Nothing could be more fitting in that 
province of the imagination whose ancient 
boundaries were never geographic, but were 
fixed only by the extent of her ancient lan- 
guage, the langue d'oc of song and chivalry. 
So it came about naturally that we of the 
Smith College Unit were fitted by our neigh- 
bors into a scheme of life that they could un- 
derstand. In spite of our unwonted, not to 
say peasant occupations, of uniforms, of mas- 
culine strength of hand, we were given 
throughout the countryside the sounding yet 
affectionate title of "les Dames de Grecourt," 



CHAPTER VI 

MOLDS OF SERVICE 

a' the 616,329 hectares of the De- 
partment of the Somme, are counted 
in round numbers : Tillable lands, 488,000 hec- 
tares. . . . The Somme is one of the best cul- 
tivated departments of France. . . . The sug- 
ar beet is the principal crop of the Santerre 
and of almost all the arrondissement of Per- 
onne." Thus our region is described in Jo- 
anne's "Geographic de la Somme," before the 
war. In his Report on the economic condition 
of the Department on August first, 1918, the 
Prefet states: "The invasion caused a loss to 
the Department of 27 percent of its territory 
in 1914, and, to mention only the principal 
crops, 40 percent of the total harvest of wheat, 
30 percent of oats, 60 percent of sugar beets, 
20 percent of fodder beets, and 18 percent of 
potatoes. The mere enumeration shows to 

64 



Molds of Service 65 

what an extent the agriculture of the Depart- 
ment was affected at the beginning of hostili- 
ties." 

But however great the disaster, it was 
matched by a courage as great. "The huge 
shortage created in the world of agricultural 
labor by the mobilization of the 25,000 to 30,- 
000 cultivators or field workers of the De- 
partment, came near being fatal to agricul- 
tural production. It is thanks to the admir- 
able steadiness of the rural population, in re- 
maining in its homes, that we owe the con- 
servation to the country of the greatest part 
of its economic power. Justly and often, the 
energy, the indomitable courage of the wives 
of the soldiers who have taken upon themselves 
the labor of men, have been placed in relief. 
In the Somme, as in the other departments, 
the country woman has shown herself equal 
to her task, and has compelled the admiration 
of the State. In addition, aged farmers who 
remained on their property and who in time of 
peace would have abandoned themselves to a 
well-earned repose, have set themselves once 



(^ Ladies of Grecourt 

more to work, aiding or guiding the young 
people who have become amateur laborers, 
drivers and producers on every hand." 

We and the other relief societies were in the 
devastated area to answer in some sort the 
needs of this brave population. But how? 
It is characteristic of the patient courtesy of 
the French nation that they have never offered 
their Allies advice. 

The broad outline of our own relief work 
had been made in America. There were the 
two doctors, one a Johns Hopkins graduate, 
and her assistant, who converted her intern- 
ship into service in the devastated districts of 
France. In lieu of trained nurses, who were 
naturally in the greatest demand for the 
American Expeditionary Force, three of our 
number acted as volunteers. There were 
women skilled in children's work, carpentry 
and handicrafts; one was a farmer, one was a 
high-school teacher; six were trained social 
service workers, and six qualified as chauffeurs. 
Our efforts fell then, into five main divisions, 
public health, stores and supplies, farming, 



Molds of Service 67 

transportation, and social service proper with 
its three sub-divisions of visiting, sewing and 
child-welfare. For the first six months a unit 
of eighteen carried out this program. Of these, 
two deserve special mention, as not officially 
members of our body; our housekeeper, Mrs. 
Koberta Cummings, a volunteer Med Cross 
worker; and our buyer of supplies in Paris, 
Mrs. Hannah D. Andrews, who became our 
Director in January, 1918. 

The doctors, as has been said, were the first 
to begin. A doctor's bag was their main reli- 
ance, since boxes of medicines failed to come 
through. This meager source of supplies was 
augmented by the kindly cooperation of the 
military doctors of the region, and later, by a 
generous grant from the American Red Cross. 
Their base of operations at headquarters was 
at first a corner of the orangerie, which they 
shared with carpentry classes, gymnastics, and 
social gatherings. The orangery was also our 
garage. To make the rounds of approxi- 
mately five hundred patients, they had their 
allotted share of transportation, with addi- 



68 Ladies of Grecourt 

tional service, whenever possible, for emer- 
gency calls. They had also Tambour, an an- 
cient horse detached from the artillery, a high 
two-wheeled cart, and a soldier in a brave new 
uniform, to drive. These last were a gift from 
the Sous-prefet at Nesle. But, most frequent- 
ly, the Unit will recall our doctors, of a Sun- 
day morning, or perhaps of a bitter afternoon, 
knapsack on back, starting cheerfully away on 
foot. Cheer, in fact, was their main stock of 
medicine. A boche baby was a baby, to be 
brought into the world as tenderly as any other 
on a winter's night. A gaunt-eyed child, lost 
by day in the bed where all the family slept 
at night, smiled over her first doll, bought with 
infinite care at Ham. Candy, hair ribbons, 
and more practical but perhaps not more effi- 
cacious, toothbrushes, beguiled the youngsters 
into habits of cleanliness. Then, too, there 
were fairy tales such as four-year-old Noel 
and 'Tasie had never heard in their war-in- 
vaded homes, of the little Love, si petit^ si 
petit, si petit, of the big bear, the little bear 
and the bear of medium size, and of the fish 



Molds of Service 69 

and the fisherman on the shore of the sea. 
Catechisms and hymns belonged to this de- 
Hghtful pharmacopsea as well, for Dr. Kelly 
remembered the France of her own childhood. 
However, medicines and bandages had their 
place, particularly after the dispensary was 
installed, by the nurses themselves, in one of 
the portable houses. Here reporters were 
prone to take pictures of the medical depart- 
ment in action, under some such caption as: 
Red Cross Doctor and Nurses of the Smith 
College Unit Binding up a Shrapnel Wound 
near the Front, — the patient in this particular 
instance being Marie, who was suffering from 
that malady most common in our neighbor- 
hood, a carbuncle. Here, one day, such was 
our fame, an ambulance load of sick French 
soldiers drew up, under the mistaken impres- 
sion that we were a military hospital! The 
dispensary was open officially six days in the 
week, and on Sunday was never quite shut. In 
addition, medical rounds were made in all the 
villages each week. In three villages, there 
were permanent dispensary quarters. All 



70 Ladies of Grecourt 

medical service, medicines, combs and tooth- 
brushes and supplementary feeding such as 
eggs and milk from our cows, were free, to 
give the fullest encouragement to healthful liv- 
ing. In spite of the shortage of pumps and 
fuel everywhere the results were striking. 
One scarcely recognized the clean — though 
often ragged — children of 1918, as those who 
had watched so listlessly our arrival six months 
before. 

Even a sojourn in the hospital, that bug- 
bear of mothers and children in other districts 
than rural France, was made by our doctors 
into a joyous adventure. The hospitals were 
not our own. One was located at Blerancourt, 
fifteen miles away, under the auspices of the 
American Fund for French Wounded, and a 
second was opened in Nesle in November, 1917, 
by the American Red Cross. The doctors tell 
of a forlorn baby who was crying all night and 
keeping the mother awake, whom they finally 
took away. "And then, the mother came and 
complained that she could no,t sleep because 
she missed having to get up with it!" But 



Molds of Service 71 

that same baby, and every child-patient who 
went to Blerancourt, came home with a "trous- 
seau" of new clothes. They talked for days 
of clean white beds, and kind ladies, and a won- 
derful journey in an automobile out into the 
wide world. 

Our store was our most picturesque and 
perhaps our most useful method of distribut- 
ing actual relief. We cannot however claim 
the idea, because the English Society at Nesle 
had such a store in operation before our ad- 
vent. Like most of the societies, they, and we, 
felt that the population should not be pauper- 
ized by too generous giving. The Government 
supplied a pension with the intention that it 
should be used to purchase necessities. It did 
not give outright even such articles as farm 
animals, tools or furniture, but issued them 
chargeable against a further indemnity to be 
paid to the victims of acts of war. We con- 
formed to the Government plan in selling our 
small wares, though a^ a much reduced price. 
This system, we found, was quite readily un- 
derstood by our villagers, because the Belgian 



72 Ladies of Grecourt 

Relief Commission had used it in these same 
villages when they lay behind the German 
lines. 

The stocking of our store began in Paris, 
and was continued in Noyon, where Baron 
Rothschild, attached to the Service de Sante, 
had inaugurated a number of sewing circles, or 
ouvroirs, for the destitute women, and placed 
on sale the finished garments. In addition, 
he carried soap, groceries, kitchen utensils and 
miscellanies, at cost. In those days the old 
Bishop's palace, which had housed one of the 
most powerful lords of the church in feudal 
times, was a plebeian but cheerful spectacle! 
To it, we made a weekly shopping trip. At 
the same time, our buyer bought tirelessly in 
Paris, and sent the goods up through the army 
by rail to N'oyon, and thence by army camion, 
to us. In this way arrived the assorted stock 
of a country emporium. But we seemed to 
deal chiefly in galoshes such as, we are told, 
the ancient Gauls of this region wore in the 
mud of Ceesar's time. Galoshes, being indig- 
enous, came in only one style of leather tops 





•\ * 






I6ll 



73 



74 Ladies of Grecourt 

and clog-like wooden soles. Sabots, on the 
other hand, were subject to fashion; nor could 
we persuade our peasants to wear the all-wood 
variety of Brittany; they favored patterned 
leather tops. Another great source of our sup- 
plies was the American Ked Cross, which al- 
lowed us to use our discretion in selhng their 
donations if purchased by them in France, 
though, owing to customs regulations, we could 
sell no imported goods. 

In spite of the rapid turnover of stock — for 
we had a fixed store at Grecourt three days in 
the week, and took the road with the White 
truck as a peddler's cart the other three — stor- 
age space presented an acute problem. Up to 
March, 1918, when the last of the poor villag- 
ers of Grecourt moved from the basse-cour 
into the shacks set up on their ruined farms, 
our store room was the cellar of the Chateau. 
At best, the light there was dim, becoming inky 
with the swift-falling winter nights. Repeated 
cleaning dislodged only surface filth, which 
seeped in again. The dampness ruined many 



Molds of Service 75 

of our supplies. The cold seemed to congeal 
all effort. And yet, from early candle light 
till late, the cellar was the scene of Unit activ- 
ity. Here in a donjon Mme. Topin chopped 
and sawed our wood ; here came the dairy maid 
with her warm pails, wary of the low lintels; 
here the housekeeper penetrated to the meat- 
safe ; here camions disgorged their cargoes, in- 
cluding thrice-precious coal, gasoline and oil. 
Here, in short, the Unit centered. 

But when the truck, full-loaded, swung out 
of the gate, across the moat, and away, youth 
and laughter were aboard. If, in after years, 
the Somme peasants forget the full measure 
of their grief and those who mourned with 
them, they will never forget, I feel sure, that 
flash of color, that ripple of mirth along the 
somber roads, — the Unit's traveling store. 
Honk! Honk! What is that sound in the vil- 
lage street? From cellars, chicken-houses, 
shacks, patched cottages, from every nook and 
cranny, race the children to climb on the run- 
ning board, and sing the progress to the square. 



76 Ladies of Grecourt 

Here come nov/ the mothers, shawls over heads, 
baskets in hand, chatting together while the 

storekeepers open hampers and boxes, hang 
up the tinware and display their goods. Lively 
questioning ensues, with approving nods at the 
prices quoted. One urges another on; some 
have commissions from stay-at-homes. The 
money is easy, the sales are brisk. It is like 
the old-time village fair! Soldiers billeted in 
the village pause and join in the chaffering; 
and the storekeepers presently add men's 
shoes and a certain amount of haberdashery 
to their weekly orders. 

Meantime the children have vanished, for 
the truck brings not only the store, but the 
playground teachers to tov*^n. In some field 
in fair weather, in some shed, or sometimes in 
the schoolroom, when it rains, the children are 
gathered, boys in one group, girls in another, 
for gymnastics and games and rondes. In sev- 
eral villages there are regular sewing periods 
for the older girls, who watch the antics of 
their little brothers and sisters with amused in- 



Molds of Service 77 

terest, and join their voices in the rondes: 
Then 

"Ou est la reine Margot, au gai, au gai, au gai, 
Ou est la reine Margot, au gai^ mon chevalier?" 

sings the hunter on the outside of the wheeling 
circle, to be answered in chorus : 

"EUe est dans son chateau, au gai, au gai, au gai, 
Elle est dans son chateau, au gai, mon chevalier." 

But games and sewing are not all ; there are 
books to be distributed, books collected on the 
quays in Paris, in musty second-hand shops, 
from book supply houses, from charitable do- 
nors, — for children's books became scarce in 
France in the years of the Great War. These, 
catalogued and covered with stout paper, go 
out now to rejoice the villages, where the 
grown-ups read them too. There are maga- 
zines also of current events, fiction and fash- 
ion. For a week they will be loaned, and re- 
placed by others at the end of that time. 

But, like all our activities, the children's 
committee had its headquarters at Grecourt. 
Here on Thursdays of each week — the hohday 



jS Ladies of Grecourt 

of the French school — -came all the children 
within walking distance who wished to come. 

And who did not? The difficulty was to keep 
out the overflow of Ercheu and Moyencourt, 
who trooped in the back way over the meadows 




'ALAS FOR THE DAY!' 



and through the woods. Alas for the day! 
they belonged to the Secours d'Urgence and 
not to us. 

On Thursdays, serious work went forward. 
There was the children's clinic in the dispen- 
sary, graded sewing classes for the girls, car- 
pentry classes and clubs for the boys, games 
and gymnastics, and often a party for all. The 
carpentry classes excited much emulation. In 



Molds of Service 79 

them we made benches and tables and shelves 
for the schools, opened with practically no 
equipment, in bare shacks or dingy rooms. 
After the needs of the school were attended 
to, the boys set to work with even more enthus- 
iasm on rough furniture for their own equally 
bare homes. The clubs were a new idea in 
most of the villages, and the simple insignia, 
designed by the boys themselves, were worn 
with pride. It was an entering wedge against 
the restless habits of three years without reg- 
ular schooling, three years of military occupa- 
tion, of the excitements and hazards of war. 

The girls' sewing classes, like the boys' car- 
pentry classes, were designed to supply needs 
in the homes. Most of the girls had deft fin- 
gers, and much of the work begun in class was 
finished at home. In two villages, where there 
were as yet no classes in school for the girls, 
sewing clubs for which we supplied the mate- 
rials were placed in charge of the teacher. As 
for knitting, no teaching was necessary to make 
the stout ribbed stockings of which every one 
had need. 

These two industries were by no means con- 



8o Ladies of Grecourt 

fined to the children. One member of the Unit 
had charge of sewing and knitting throughout 
our villages, and supplied material, cut into 
garments, to forty women. The price paid 
for the making was that fixed by the French 
Red Cross, which had large work rooms in 
Nesle and in Ham. Our women, being field 
workers, were most of them not expert with 
the needle. They undertook the sewing dur- 
ing the winter more for occupation than for 
anything else. All the garments returned 
went into our stores, to be distributed in re- 
lief, or sold. 

The basis of charitable giving, with us, as 
with any relief organization, lay in investiga- 
tion of family income and needs. We had our 
visitors, to each of whom was assigned one vil- 
lage, a method already worked out in conf ormi- 
ity with the marraine plan by the American 
Fund for French Wounded at Blerancourt. 
But we went into our homes in the ruins with 
a very different point of view from that 
of the professional charity worker of the slums. 
Slums our villages might be. Eppeville, the- 



Molds of Service 8i 

poorer artisan quarter of Ham, with its popu- 
lation of migratory refugees, here to-day and 
gone on their way to-morrow, was a case in 
point. But the majority of our poor had been 
prosperous, industrious farmers. Their em- 
barrassment was temporary only; they were 
not to be classified in cold blood in a statistical 
survey. About their poor tables, beside their 
hearths, we sat and chatted over cups of coiFee, 
or steaming bowls of soup. Theirs was a prob- 
lem in economics, not in charity. 

Hence, the end of all our effort was to stim- 
ulate normal communal life and industry. If 
there was a blacksmith without a forge, and a 
continuous stream of travel bound to require 
repairs, it was our duty to get the forge. If 
a community entitled to a shack for a school 
was not receiving it, we called the attention of 
the proper authorities to this oversight. If 
there was a grocer by trade, without a stock 
and with no means of transportation, we 
bought for him and delivered. If there were 
supplies of fodder, of hay, or of vegetables in 
storage in some barn, we paid for and con- 



82 Ladies of Grecourt 

sumed them, putting money in circulation. 
Such were the obvious means of alleviation at 
our command. In line with tliis was our intro- 
duction of livestock for the purpose of supply- 
ing the people, and our agricultural program 
which was of prime importance in this farming 
country, and which developed with the spring 
into our main line of effort. 

As for the habitually indigent, they were in 
a minority, and were known, as they would 
have been at home, in all the Mairies and to all 
the teachers, who are in France, ex-officio, the 
mayorial secretaries. Thus in every village a 
committee stood, readymade as it were, to help 
us. Despite the war, the mayor's lists were 
models of accuracy and neatness, his comments, 
or more frequently those of his wife, full of 
sense and human nature. Or, did they appear 
biased, there were enough country families of 
prominence with whom we might advise, to 
correct his judgment. 

To one and all alike, we gave beds, bedding, 
mattresses, stoves and larger articles of furni- 
ture such as cupboards and sideboards — all 



Molds of Service 83 

furniture of a temporary nature, which in the 
course of time they would need to replace with 
substantial pieces. This ruling was made to 
equalize our giving with that of the GoverA- 
ment, which turned over its stores of indemnity 
furniture in our district to us. To the indi- 
gent we distributed the Red Cross supplies 
of clothing and our own, imported from Amer- 
ica. For the rest, we used our discretion, tak- 
ing as the general rule of our conduct, the ad- 
vice given us by Mr. Homer Folks, the Di- 
rector of the Department of Civil Affairs of 
the American Red Cross: 

"When people have been through the ex- 
periences which befell the inhabitants of the 
devastated regions during the last three and a 
half years, I think we may safely deal with 
them in a somewhat more generous manner, 
. . . than would be the case in ordinary relief 
work at home." 



CHAPTER VII 

CHRISTMAS OF THE LIBERATION 

IN feudal times, and indeed until the ruin 
of the House of Nesle by the debauch- 
eries which preceded the French Revolution, 
the spires of half of our village churches bore 
as weather vanes the two cocks which denoted 
their allegiance to that noble suzerain. Upon 
Nesle depended two thousand fiefs, among 
them the "important barony of Esmery-Hal- 
lon," Hombleux and Bacquencourt. From 
these villages at Christmas time went up the 
mayors, to sit as court of appraisal upon the 
wheat, oats, bread, capons, geese, pullets and 
other produce due the marquis in tithes, — a 
ceremony which began with the Magnificat, 
and concluded with a dinner given by the con- 
cierge of the Chateau to the mayors, the mill- 
ers, the bakers, the tavern-keepers, the meas- 
urers and the cooks of Nesle. "Another feudal 

84 



-m 



^^^::^^^.i. AiuHii^ 



J 



"A VILLAGE CHURCH"-~iV1UILLE-VILLETTE 



85 



86 Ladies of Grecourt 

obligation was also imposed, under pain of a 
fine, upon the mayors of the various depen- 
dencies and upon the millers of the town, 
which was to appear Christmas night in the 
great hall of the Chateau, to see the kindling 
of the huge log which was lighted each year in 
this way."* 

In 1917, the spires of our churches were for 
the most part fire-gutted skeletons ; in none of 
them pealed the Christmas bells; in none of 
the edifices were held the midnight masses so 
dear to the devout villagers. Yet 1917 marked 
for the Somme villages the Christmas of the 
Liberation. What though the moonlight 
flooded the plain, and made a target of half 
demolished ruins for German aviators, so that 
the Bishop of Amiens was constrained to for- 
bid the midnight service? At least the Ger- 
mans no longer sat at their firesides, or set up 
their laden Christmas trees, or celebrated in 
the churches the Te Deums of their victories. 

At Nesle itself, the occasion was marked by 

*Histoire de I'arrondissement de P6ronne: Paul de Cagny, 
Vol. II, p. 452. 



Christmas of the Liberation 87 

ceremonies as brilliant, as moving, as any in 
her long history. M. le Sous-Prefet gave 
there a party to a thousand children, gathered 
from the town itself and from near-by vil- 
lages. He presided in silver-braided uniform, 
the Army assisted in gorgeous red and gold 
and blue; French ladies of noble family hid 
their identity in the graceful veils of the Croix 
Rouge; the British of the CEuvre Anglaise, 
and the Americans of the Smith Unit, came 
in kliaki and in service gray. But the chil- 
dren! They sat with mothers, grandmothers 
or grandfathers in that dingy hall, listening 
with all their ears to the gi-ave, gracious Pre- 
fet, to the opera singer of Parisian fame 
whose croiiV de guerre scintillated at every 
breath, and looking with all their hungry eyes 
at the candled Cliristmas tree. For each child 
there was a present and a goodie, and a smile 
from the Sous-Prefet, who had brought his 
own famdly with him to Nesle. To their elders 
went a card from the Secours d'Urgence at 
Roye, bearing a picture of de Roty's "La 
Semeuse" and inscribed: "To those who have 



88 Ladies of Grecourt 

no longer houses or gardens or sanctuaries, 
whose very soil is tossed by the storm of fire 
and sword — to them we send thee, swift- 
footed Sower. 

"Their eyes are filled with the sight of ruins, 
but there remains to them the love of their 
land and their faith in work. Go, tell them 
that they are not alone. France is there, her 
noble Allies are there. The houses shall be 
rebuilt, the gardens shall flower again. The 
grain shall ripen once more in the furrows. 
We have not come to the end of plowing and 
planting, loving and hoping. A breath of 
righteous anger and liberating love has passed 
over the world. No crime shall rest unpun- 
ished, no one shall have suffered in vain." 

We too had our Christmas fetes, a week of 
them, for each of our villages. Shopping be- 
gan early on both sides of the Atlantic for six 
hundred children and a thousand adults. The 
College clubs in America sent us lists of the 
contents of generous Christmas boxes, but we 
on our part knew that these boxes would prob- 
ably never arrive at Grecourt. So to Paris 



Christmas of the Liberation 89 

went shopping orders compiled from the lists 
given us by our mayors and annotated by our 
Christmas committee. There were wholesale 
orders of mittens, capes, stockings and warm 
underwear, as well as of toys. Besides pur- 
chases, there were ample Red Cross donations, 
donations from M. le Sous-Prefet, and from 
M. le Commandant at Guiscard. Some of the 
articles came from Noyon, and others, includ- 
ing the bags for candy, were made by our own 
women in the villages. But even so, as the 
week of our fetes drew near, there were un- 
expected demands to be met. Early falling 
snow threatened to retard shipments from 
Paris. A shopping trip in our own truck to 
Amiens was therefore decided on and carried 
out over the bleak and drifted roads. 

Then, village by village and name by name, 
the gifts were wrapped and stowed in sacks in 
the cellar. The cars were overhauled with 
special care, for the weather had turned bitter 
cold. But our program called for Christmas 
services as well as Christmas trees. After 
dinner in the evenings might have been heard 



90 Ladies of Grecourt 

■ — if there had been any one on that starlit 
plain to hear — the songs of goodwill. Out 
in the stables, by the flare of lanterns, little 
Giselle and Laure and Georgette and Lucien, 
the only children in Grecourt, sang: 

"Saint jour d'allegressCj, 
O mon beau Noel^ 
Dieu dans sa tendresse 
Vient a nous du ciel. 
Dieu dans sa tendresse 
Vient a nous du ciel. 
Noel, Noel, 
O mon beau Noel." 

And through the canvas walls of the dining 
shack came in chorus from the Unit: 

"The first Nowell the angels did say 
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay; 
In fields where they lay, a-keeping their sheep, 
On a cold winter's night that was so deep. 
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 
Born is the King of Israel!" 

On Christmas Day itself, however, the Unit 
was at home to its countrymen. There were 
American soldiers attached to French or Brit- 
ish commands in our vicinity. There were 
our colleagues of the American Red Cross, 
and of the Friends. There were our rescuers 




i-. 



I --f 



LUCIEN 



91 



92 Ladies of Grecourt 

of a memorable night of fog and perilous driv- 
ing, — "just as good as Americans," — ^the Ca- 
nadian foresters. All these and any chance 
acquaintances of our side of the Atlantic, we 
invited to Christmas dinner at Chateau Robe- 
court. 

Our great hall was doubtless no colder than 
that in which the Marquis of Nesle used to 
welcome his retainers, for those days, like ours, 
were lacking in window glass. In lieu of the 
Yule log, a monstrous German stove, luckily 
unearthed, heated one end of the orangery. 
From the lofty ceiling depended lanterns fes- 
tooned with Christmas greens; loops of mis- 
tletoe and holly were caught in place along 
the walls by sconced candles. The table was 
heaped with turkey, cranberry and steaming 
potatoes. There was a fragrance of hot coffee 
which was served with real cream. Our 
guests, from a radius of thirty miles, num- 
bered about seventy-five. They ate and 
danced and sang with war-time zest. Yester- 
day, to-morrow made as it were a spotlight 
of the present, and this was Christmas night. 

A few days later, the orangery was again 



Christmas of the Liberation 93 

the scene of a Christmas gathering, our fete 
to Grecourt, Esmery-Hallon, Hombleux, 
Bacquencourt and Buverchy, our nearest vil- 
lages. There were distinguished guests at this 
party also, and one of the treats which M. le 
Sous-Prefet brought were tarts of white, 
white flour which he had commanded to be 
made for our children by the bakers of Nesle. 
But the parties which were most memorable 
were those held in the distant villages ; in Can- 
isy, with an air battle taking place overhead; 
in the bleak ruins of Douilly, in Sancourt, 
where the sun went down blood red across the 
snow; in the soldiers' theater of Offoy, scarfed 
with the blue smoke of open braziers. There 
the Colonel of the regiment and the Mayor of 
the town united their gifts to ours. For the 
Colonel had sent one of his captains to Paris, 
where the captain's wife had, according to or- 
ders, spent many days in shopping for the 
children. And yet, the fete, — it was ours. To 
the Colonel we owed also the military chap- 
lain who celebrated the Christmas masses, and 
his friend a young corporal who accompanied 
us everywhere, to lead in the singing or to do 



94 Ladies of Grecourt 

any service that we would allow. Cold, deso- 
late, and yet how happy, were those Christ- 
mas fetes, never to be repeated, of 1917. 

No, never to be repeated, for 1918 brings 
the picture of another Christmas, a refugee 
Christmas, for the exiles of Grecourt in a 
farmhouse at Rambouillet, a hundred miles 
away. It too was a Christmas of the Libera- 
tion, for the Armistice was already six weeks 
old, the hated invader had left the soil of 
France, their own villages in the Somme were 
free. To fulfill their happiness, fathers had 
come back from slavery with the Germans, 
and husbands from the colors. But the inter- 
vening year had held its ultimate sacrifices, 
the second flight of the villagers before the 
enemy, the dispersion of kinsfolk, some of 
them never heard from, the suspense when 
the fate of the world hung in the defense of 
Noyon and of Chateau-Thierry. Alas! into 
the breach at Noyon was thrown the regiment 
of the Colonel of Offo}^, in repose at the mo- 
ment. There, like many another, fell our 
friend the corporal. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE KAISEE-SCHLACHT 

THE new year of 1918 opened with mo- 
mentous changes in the Somme. Even 
before we reached Grecourt, rumors had been 
current of the "Allied offensive," and of the 
extension of the British lines toward St. Quen- 
tin. These lines, pivoted on Amiens, ran 
westward to the Channel, and eastward as far 
as Chaulnes. Many a time on our trips up 
from Paris, we went by Amiens, changing 
there for the little train that ventured on to 
Ham, and many a time have we ridden with 
the Tommies, who stumbled out of the un- 
lighted train into the darkness at Chaulnes. 
Already in November the advance police from 
British headquarters came down to investigate 
our reason for existing in the War Zone. 
They told us even then that our presence 

95 



96 Ladies of Grecourt 

might be unwelcome to their Army, the policy 
of the British being opposed to civilian work- 
ers of a semi-military rating, and particularly 
to women workers near the lines. 

In January the long-expected extension of 
the lines took place. By the hundreds of 
thousands, the trenches to the north and east 
emptied themselves in blue-flowing arteries, 
coursing, day and night, down the Somme 
valley, to destinations to us unknown. Cav- 
alry, commissariat and artillery, dented and 
camouflaged, passed with a hollow rumbling 
that shook the frozen roads. The aerodrome 
in our rear, where but a few days before dozens 
of new planes had lain, like butterflies with 
poised wings, ready for flight, swarmed over- 
night. The gypsy vans of the homing doves 
— strange birds of peace in the midst of war — 
joined in the exodus. It gave one a wrench 
at the heart to see that rearward movement, 
to see our Army go. Nor were they immedi- 
ately followed in our sector by their succes- 
sors. One wondered who was holding the 
lineSo And then, they came down those same 



The Kaiser-Schlacht 97 

roads, the Fifth British Army, a solid dun- 
colored stream. They overflowed into our 
villages and took up the quarters the poilus 
had left. Their officers, correct and spotless, 
came to call. Their Headquarters at length 
recognized us and allowed us to remain. To 
this desired end, the Sous-Prefet contributed 
with his request for our presence, and his testi- 
mony to the value of our work. He too re- 
mained, as did all the civil authorities. In 
fact, as the days passed, we found that we 
had only exchanged the cooperation of the 
French army for that of the British. 

But an unforeseen handicap was a restric- 
tion of circulation, rigidly enforced. It caught 
us just at the end of our first six months of 
service, when a third of our number went 
home and were replaced by fresh volunteers. 
These latter were detained in Paris by the 
ruling that no new workers could be admitted 
to the Zone, so that our force at Grecourt 
was reduced to eleven. And this at the open- 
ing of spring, for which we had planned all 
winter the plowing and the planting and the 



98 Ladies of Grecourt 

community centers, undertakings impossible 
during the inclement season. 

Another change affecting our status was 
our formal transfer from the American Fund 
for French Wounded to the American Red 
Cross. This step was in accordance with our 
plan when we left America. It was impor- 
tant in that it gave the sanction of the Ameri- 
can Red Cross to a college unit. Other units, 
equipped by women's colleges, were quick to 
enroll under the Red Cross and to follow us 
to France. But here again we were entangled 
in red tape which nearly stopped our circulat- 
ing at all. Our cars, of which we had four at 
this time, had to have new permits; in short, 
they must be given new military numbers un- 
der the American Red Cross. Nor could they 
receive them by proxj^ ; they must go to Paris. 
And once in Paris, they came near never get- 
ting out. 

But it may as well be confessed that the 
Smith Unit has seldom allowed itself to be 
trammeled. If it had permits, well and good; 
if it had not, it was something like the Ameri- 



The Kaiser-Schlacht 99 

can ambulances on the road from Verdun. 
On its errand of mercy, it too passed. Not 
that it evaded so much as persuaded. A clear 
conscience and a good cause usually won a 
way. 

But the most serious anxiety of the Unit at 
this time was due to the fact that our two doc- 
tors were among those who left us, and that 
the doctor who came to replace them was held 
in Paris. Practically no medical work was 
possible for us. This want was partially met 
by the personnel of the Ked Cross Hospital at 
Nesle, and by the cooperation of the military 
authorities, always vitally interested for their 
own protection in public health. To the Sixth 
Engineers of the American Ai^my stationed at 
Voyennes, we owe special thanks for their sur- 
geon. 

The needs of our villages for shelter and for 
furniture were still emergent, owing to slow- 
ness of transportation, and the Unit was still 
delivering blankets, mattresses and beds. But 
the early spring, which carpeted our grove with 
anemones and violets and welcomed back the 



100 Ladies of Grecourt 

nightingales, brought relief from biting cold. 
It brought also the season of agricultural ac- 
tivity. 

A grant from the Red Cross and a trip to 
Amiens yielded us two plows. Others were 
borrowed from military dumps where broken 
farm machinery was being assembled and re- 
paired. Horses and plowmen came from the 
British army, which like the French army — 
and like the German — carried out an exten- 
sive agricultural program. The plots we se- 
lected first lay in Grecourt, Bacquencourt, 
Canisy and Brouchy. They were of too small 
acreage to be worked by the army tractors, 
and yet too large to be worked — ^had labor 
been available — by the spade. Yet such hold- 
ings sown to wheat would total as much as 
the broad acres of the proprietaires. For, in 
Picardj'- especially, the adage of "no land 
without its seigneur" has come in modern 
times to mean no land without its owner. 
Renters of property are comparatively rare, 
and the farms once acquired by the peasantry 
have been handed down, with ever more mi- 



The Kaiser-Schlacht loi 

nute subdivisions, from father to son. In fact, 
the first and by no means easy task of the farm 
committee had been to locate these holdings, 
from which the Germans had removed the 
boundary marks. It was in February, with 
three teams of horses, that the plowing began. 



•^ 



\\ 1 



V 






-^i «/ 






"FROM FATHER TO SON' 



Seed wheat was supplied by the Govern- 
ment through the Ministry of Agriculture, 
but there was no adequate provision for vege- 
table gardens. These, however, were universal, 
from the bottom land gardens of Canisy which 
formerly supplied the markets of Nesle and 
of St. Quentin, to the kitchen garden of each 



102 Ladies of Grecourt 

cottage. Seed for these the Unit undertook 
to furnish. A notice was posted in every vil- 
lage, and in some the town crier rang his bell 
and proclaimed, that the ladies of Grecourt 
would come on a certain day to take orders for 
seeds. The response was enthusiastic; the 
women crowded, lists in hand, about our a,u- 
tomobile. And such lists! The French are 
past masters in classification as well as in in- 
tensive gardening. There was to be chicory, 
but it was to be curled; carrots, but short, 
medium or long, and lettuce, as one of the 
Unit put it, "for more seasons than we ever 
knew existed." Flower seeds were not for- 
gotten. As for potatoes, a carload was or- 
dered through government channels. In 
March, the Unit received its seeds in bulk. 
Every dish and pan and every member were 
requisitioned. To sort and do up the pack- 
ages in grammes was a task hke that of sort- 
ing a roomful of needles such as one reads of 
in fairy tales. But at length it was completed ; 
the hundreds of allotments were ready for de- 
livery on the twenty-first of March. 



The Kaiser-Schlacht 103 

For this same date was set the opening of 
the Library in its own quarters, which the 
Tommies had helped to fit up. Seven hun- 
dred books stood on the shelves; there were 
games and tools which could be borrowed as 
well; there were a phonograph and a cinema. 
Painted tables and chairs, flowers and bright 
colored curtains made homelike the first cir- 
culating library in the Somme. 

Community centers in three villages besides 
Grecourt were also a development of the 
spring of 1918. One was at desolate Douilly, 
where a social service worker was planning to 
live, one at Canisy and one at Verlaines. 
These latter were primarily for the children, 
and were in charge of two kindergarten teach- 
ers. Canisy, with a war population of fifty 
children, had had no school since before the 
German occupation. Verlaines, an appen- 
dage of Eppeville, had nominally been more 
favored. But practically it was crowded out 
in the poor makeshift of a building. Nor was 
there any kindergarten. Manual training for 
the boys, first aid, sewing and cooking for the 



104 Ladies of Grecourt 

girls, were taught in both these centers. At 
Canisy regular class work in English for the 
older pupils and story hours for the younger, 
were added. At both Canisy and Verlaines, 
children's gardens with prizes, were to be a 
part of the curriculum. In both, the children 
themselves cleaned and whitewashed and hung 
curtains in the rooms and made most of the 
furniture. One hundred and eighty children 
attended in February. 

Whether by the force of example, or by per- 
sistent following up, or both, the public schools 
themselves improved steadily in equipment 
during this period. Desks, chairs and black- 
boards began to take the places of rough ta- 
bles, benches and a strip of black painted 
wall. School baraques neared completion; 
even Canisy saw the Moroccans lay the foun- 
dations of its school. The Unit shared the 
good fortune which seemed to brighten the 
future of the villages; its own living baraque, 
long-promised and long-lost, at length arrived. 
Then it rejoiced in a dining-room and a 
kitchen under the same roof, in a butler's pan- 



The Kaiser-Schlacht 105 

try, and a living-room. There was a work 
room for the sewing, which had grown to a 
considerable industry; there were to be a car- 
pentry shop and a gymnasium. At last the 
stables were evacuated by the happy villagers 
of Grecourt, whose baraques stood trimly on 
the sites of their ruined homes. At last the 
miscellaneous assortment of supplies in our 
cellar, the soap which turned to suds, and the 
sugar which melted to syrup, the moldy 
shoes, the rat-eaten clothing, were transferred 
to those same stables in orderly array. 

And at last came the twenty-first of March 
and the Kaiser-Schlacht of the Battle of Pi- 
cardy. The Unit, keeping kindergarten, sort- 
ing seeds, unpacking boxes of crepes and toys 
which had just arrived from Japan, heard that 
offensive begin. But it had lived long on the 
edge of danger, it felt safe in the shelter of 
the British army, it had learned to discount 
rumors, even the recurrent rumors of the 
German advance. What though the baraques 
shook with the impact of the terrible barrage? 
The seeds must be sorted, the gifts for the 



io6 Ladies of Grecourt 

children must be ready for Easter, the work 
must go on. That night the good sense of 
the Unit seemed justified; the cannonading 
died down. We went to bed not knowing that 
the German hosts were again on the road to 
Paris and only ten miles away. No whisper 
of breaking lines came through to out-of-the- 
way Grecourt. 

Nor were the villages themselves warned. 
By forced night marches, in absolute silence, 
580,000 men had been massed on the St. Quen- 
tin front. Opposed to them was the Fifth 
British Army of 170,000, whose lines of de- 
fense even had not yet been consolidated. 
Shielded by a dense fog, the Germans crossed 
No-man's-land. They fell on the British 
trenches. By the morning of the twenty-sec- 
ond, word reached us through the Sous-Pref et 
and later through a British officer, that the 
Germans were approaching Ham. The cars 
went out in haste at the news, to help in evac- 
uating our villages. One went to Ham itself 
for gasoline, one to Verlaines, where the en- 
tire population was entrusted to us, and a 



The Kaiser-Schlacht 107 

third crawled through the congestion of 
choked roads in an effort to reach Canisy. 
Beyond Ham, Offoy, Douilly and Sancourt 
were cut off. We heard afterwards how M. 
Vernes and M. QuelMen, reckless of danger, 
raced the Germans in a high-powered car, and 
rescued the populace by a special train which 
pulled out in full bombardment. But by the 
time we were warned, Canisy was being 
shelled, and there was no escape. There re- 
mained the refugees from Esmery-Hallon, 
Hombleux, Buverchy, Bacquencourt and 
Breuil, who began to stream on foot or in 
wagons toward Boye and Montdidier. For 
the German advance, sweeping almost to the 
gates of Amiens, quickly overran the railroad. 
Our own village of Grecourt was slow to leave 
its new baraques, its freshly planted gardens, 
and its furnishings so lately acquired. 

We ourselves staid. British troops, ex- 
hausted, straggled by dozens and by hundreds 
toward night through the gates of the Cha- 
teau. The Unit's first canteen began with 
them. Hot coffee was served until after mid- 



io8 Ladies of Grecourt 

night. A breakfast was left ready on the 
stove for the morning, and clean dishes set out 
for the meal. Meantime, the cannon were 
deafening, big British guns emplaced in our 
fields adding to the clamor. Our cows had 
been sent on in advance ; our other belongings 
Were entrusted to the British, to be used, or, 
as a last resort, to be destroyed. The cars 
were overhauled and stowed with a meager 
assortment of duffles, suitcases, blankets and 
food. The records, the pure bred poultry and 
Fury, our pet dog, were also to be evacuated. 
At dawn, the crackle of mitrailleuse could 
be heard distinctly. The major in command 
at Grecourt warned us to be off. "And so, 
in the faint gray mist — that mist which had 
been so fatal to the British Fifth Army — we 
rolled through the gates for the last time," 
and took in our turn the refugee road through 
Roye to Montdidier. But our usefulness did 
not end with our flight. Under orders from 
the French Mission attached to the British 
Army, our four cars scoured the country. The 
old, the feeble and the new-born, our own vil- 



The Kaiser-Schlacht 109 

lages and dozens of others owed their escape 
to us. 

In Montdidier itself, we took charge of the 
embarkation upon the refugee trains. The 
scenes were heartrending, families scattered, 
sacks and furniture and animals saved thus 
far abandoned for lack of space. Here too we 
set up canteens, to which the American Red 
Cross and the Quakers contributed their 
stores and their personnel. For all the relief 
organizations driven out from our sector met 
in Montdidier. By the following day the Red 
Cross authorities from Paris had come up to 
direct the retreat for their own units, of which 
we were one. Accordingly five of our number 
were ordered to Amiens. But Amiens that 
night suffered the most severe bombardment 
of the war, and the next day the Red Cross 
joined in the general evacuation, heading for 
Beauvais. Meantime, Montdidier was being 
given up. "There was almost panic in the 
air," reads one of the Unit notebooks. "Peo- 
ple were fairly tearing to the train with their 
carts and wheelbarrows of baggage." 



no Ladies of Grecourt 

But "when we left the hastening streams of 
evacues and army traffic in the streets and 
went into our hotel for dinner, we seemed in 
another world. The proprietress had laid the 
tahle most carefully with clean linen and the 
choicest crystal and china she owned, and 
lighted it with candles. She waved her hand 
toward it with pride. 'Voila/ she said, 'it is 
thus the Boches shall find my house when they 
enter it!' " Other pictures this notebook has, 
of a British major in charge of a detachment 
in a little village just coming within range of 
German bombs, "strolling around with his 
pipe in his mouth and an air of being bored 
in general, who insisted on having bacon, fried 
eggs and coffee served to us." On every page, 
in every account, is testimony to the wonder- 
ful nerve of the British, both officers and men, 
during that Great Retreat, "If there was a 
blunder — which only time can tell — ^it was 
higher up, and those men who gave their lives 
that week should be freed from any breath 
of blame." 

Equally unstinted is the praise of the refu- 



The Kaiser-Schlacht iii 

gees. "I cannot tell you," says one, "how pa- 
tient and uncomplaining they were." "Among 

them," writes another, "came Mme. B and 

Alphonsine from Buverchy. And as with the 
others of our villagers who had been with us 
at Montdidier, I felt as though each forgave 
the other all iniquities and there was nothing 
left but friendship and sympathy." 

There are glimpses of a distracted mother 
of nine children, strung along each on a dif- 
ferent gun carriage; of hurrying dispatch 
carriers; of booming batteries. In a cer- 
tain village the French reenforcements were 
in position, "and as we went on there was 
a deafening noise of guns. I was looking 
around to see where it came from and a 
French soldier said, smiling, that we needn't 
be afraid, they were French guns. I allowed 
I wasn't afraid, but I'd like to see them, so 
we went up a little road back of the church, 
and there was a French 155 mm. gun. I 
wanted to see it fired, so stood by till all was 
ready, then when they fired stepped back un- 
der shelter, for it shook tiles off roofs, made 



112 Ladies of Grecourt 

the walls totter and gave out a noise like a 
thunderbolt, as it leapt up and then sank lan- 
guidly down again." 

As for the Unit itself, one member had 
tiiiie occasionally to sight another making 
soup, boarding trains to distribute food, driv- 
ing, or "with a blanket full of hunks of bread 
on her arm, managing traffic with her char- 
acteristic efficiency." But for the most part, 
it seems to have been quite preoccupied. The 
newspapers in America which featured for a 
day "the heroism of the Smith College girls" 
knew better than the Unit what it was accom- 
plishing along the roads from Grecourt 
through Roye, Montdidier and St. Just to 
the allied headquarters in Beauvais. In ret- 
rospect, it treasures the testimony of the 
American Red Cross: "They have lost their 
equipment, to be sure, but they have saved the 
lives of hundreds of French women and chil- 
dren and old people. Each girl was charged 
with the evacuation of a village, and each one 
stuck to her post and rescued her people in 
spite of shell iSre. We have believed for a 



The Kaiser-Schlacht 113 

long time that American college girls were 
equal to any emergency. We have never had 
a finer example of their courage and ingenuity 
than that which this small band of Smith girls 
has given us. Major Perkins wants more Hke 
them in France." 



CHAPTER IX 

"after the wae," 

OF how the French saved the hne at Las- 
signy, in what Lloyd George called at 
the time the most wonderful bit of swift mili- 
tary organization the world has ever known, 
of the bombardment of Paris, of Chateau- 
Thierry, of the Argonne drive, it is not the 
province of this story to deal. In the annals 
of the war, one comes across occasional men- 
tion of the Smith College Unit. It too was 
there. There, ten miles from Verdun, in the 
canteens which it had organized for our own 
army, the Armistice found it on the eleventh 
of November, 1918. 

The hush of that truce fell almost painfully 
upon ears long keyed to uproar, upon spirits 
taut with excitement. It threw out of em- 
ployment, millions upon millions of men. It 
disjointed vast plans, among them those of 

114 



"After the War" 115 

the American Red Cross, of which we were 
an infinitesimal part. The magic fabric of 
Red Cross organization with the American 
Expeditionary Forces was doomed to dissolu- 
tion. Within a month, the Unit, save for two 
members ¥/ho accompanied the Army of Oc- 
cupation to Coblenz, was back in Paris, with- 
out a job. Yes, it walked the streets of Paris 
many days, from the offices of the American 
Red Cross — that house of cards so soon to 
crumble — to those of the Ministry of the Lib- 
erated Regions, trying to learn what were the 
policies of the hour. Of its own purpose, it 
was already sure. On the morning of the Re- 
treat, its leader had written to the Committee 
in America, "Tell every one that when the 
proper time comes, we will return and rebuild 
our villages." 

These villages, which had been freed by the 
victorious advances of early September, were 
offered to us once more by the Ministry. We 
knew, from tours of inspection, that the in- 
habitants were coming back. In other regions 
societies similar to ours had already resumed 



ii6 Ladies of Grecourt 

their functions. But as for the Somme, we 
Were told on the one hand that if help did not 
arrive by January, a whole harvest would be 
lost, and, on the other, that it would be crim- 
inal to encourage a return to their ruins of the 
destitute refugees. 

In spite of our previous experience, the 
problem was a new one to us. In 1917, our 
villagers had not been evacuated en masse, 
to a great distance from their homes ; they had 
saved some things, and their most emergent 
physical needs had been supplied before our 
advent. In 1918, they were dispersed to the 
four corners of France and beyond the border 
in Germany. They would come back from 
exile and from imprisonment with only what 
they could carry by hand, to ruins four times 
denuded by the successive struggles of oppos- 
ing armies. In 1917, they could rely upon 
their own army of occupation for food and 
labor; in 1918, only upon the civilian authori- 
ties, still hampered by military exigencies, and 
upon German prisoners. In 1917, the libera- 
tion came in the spring, with all the summer 



"After the War" 117 

of production ahead; in 1918, on the threshold 
of the inclement winter. 

But of all the discouragements and prob- 
lems which faced us, the greatest was the de- 
cision of the American Ked Cross not to re- 
commission its units of civilian relief. As a 
part of the American Red Cross, we were ndt 
free even to accept the offer of our villages 
made by the French Government. Back of 
this decision of the Red Cross were reasons 
we could not know. They concerned us only 
in so far as they might apply to any outside 
agency entering on the after-war field of re- 
habilitation. Rumors were current that the 
French did not want American personnel. If 
so, we were not justified in withdrawing from 
the Red Cross, or in soliciting money to con- 
tinue as an independent unit. What was to 
be done? We took counsel of many, notably 
of our former ofiicial head in the Red Cross, 
Mr. W. B. Jackson, and of Mr. George B. 
Ford. The latter, an architect and a liaison 
officer between the American Red Cross and 
the French Government, was an excellent 



Il8 Ladies of Grecourt 

adviser. We asked to be released from the 
Red Cross, and accepted from the French the 
responsibility of our villages. 

In doing this, we had throughout the great- 
est practical assistance from the American 
Red Cross. Its decision to withdraw its di- 
rect agents of relief was made in favor of a 
larger plan, that of stocking great warehouses 
at central points in the devastated area, which 
should be reservoirs of supply and of trans- 
portation on a wholesale scale of all relief 
agencies in their districts. There were seven 
of these warehouses in the devastated area. 
From two of them, those at Compiegne and at 
Amiens, we drew heavily. In addition, the 
Red Cross furnished us with three new cam- 
ionettes, so that our transport consisted of our 
original White truck — of which we are very 
proud — a passenger Ford, a Ford jitney and 
the three camionettes, making six cars in all. 
To this means of locomotion, we added, as 
we had done in the spring of 1917, the con- 
venient bicycle. 

But in December, 1918, it may well be be- 



"After the War" 119 

lieved tRat bicycles were not in use. The first 
ofiicial act of the Unit, after its decision, was 
to make a Christmas tour of its villages. On 
the morning of the twenty-fourth two cars 
left Paris, heading through a driving sleet for 
Grecourt. They carried four members of the 
original Unit, and one who had never seen our 
old home before. In Compiegne, a halt was 
made to do Christmas shopping for the chil- 
dren who were sure to be back. For Com- 
piegne, terribly bombed as it had been the pre- 
ceding summer, had waked to life. Not so 
Noyon. The Cathedral, which Kobert Louis 
Stevenson once likened to a gallant battle 
ship, still reared its shattered towers above the 
rolling hills. But the town which had clus- 
tered since the days of Charlemagne under its 
protection, was practically destroyed and im- 
inhabited. Topping the rise between Noyon 
and Guiscard, the cars sped on over the plain, 
which seemed to bear in its winter nakedness 
the hideous scars, not only of the Great War, 
but of the sorrows of all its past. Verhaeren 
saw his plains thus haimted: 



120 Ladies of Grecourt 

"It is the plain, the plain," he cries, 

"Where nothing sounds but fear and pain . . . 

Where course along the rutted roads. 

Mingling their identity 

With fields of sorrow and of poverty. 

Despairs and Miseries . . . 

"And the great arms of Christs funereal. 
At the crossroads, in the twilight 
Looming larger, seem suddenly to lift. 
In cries of fear, toward the lost sun. . . » 

"It is the plain, the plain. 
Dun and endless as hate I" 

But at length, the cars halted in the ruins 
of Brouchy, whose outlines had not greatly 
changed. Here there were indeed the children 
and their elders, a hundred souls in all. Among 
them some were strangers to us, for they had 
come from that great tribulation, captivity 
behind the German lines. But one and all, 
they welcomed us, asking eagerly when we 
should return to Grecourt. Passing on to 
Offoy, which in 1917 had escaped almost un- 
scathed, we found it had been severely shelled 
in the contested crossings of the Somme Canal. 
Like Sancourt and Douilly, it was uninhab- 
ited. At Canisy, on the other side of the 
Canal, three men, returned prisoners from 




"CHRISTS FUNEREAL" — BROUCHY 



121 



122 Ladies of Grecourt 

Germany, were living in a hovel and trying 
to patch up homes against the coming of wives 
and children. At Buverchy, the other ex- 
treme of our sector, again the signs of bitter 
conflict were evident. The Canal du Nord 
had been fortified by the enemy as one long 
trench. The fields between Buverchy and 
Grecourt, Bacquencourt, Breuil and Hom- 
bleux had been the theater of struggle about 
the key of the German defense just north of 
Hombleux, known as Cote 77. 

But in Hombleux, thirty-one of our neigh- 
bors were already back. Esmery-Hallon, 
Verlaines, Muille-Villette had their quotas. 
And when the cars drew up at length at the 
Chateau Bobecourt, who should be looking 
out of the one pane of glass lefj: in her win- 
dow, but the care-taker, our old friend Marie. 
Not only was she there, but her soldier hus- 
band, on leave for the fete, her mother and 
her two boys. Apparently oblivious to the 
gaping hasse-cour, the breached walls of Mme. 
la Baronne's garden, the shell holes, litter of 
ammunition and blasted woods — for here the 



"After the War" 123 

Germans had emplaced a powerful battery — 
Marie was at home. "For here," said she, 
"one has everything — a roof, wood, two fires. 
It is much better than Paris." And forthwith 
she invited the cold and hungry travelers in. 
From the Somme to the Riviera, sunny as 
its mimosa blooms, was a contrast long to be 
remembered. It was at Nice, in the week be- 
tween Christmas and New Year's that the 
Unit, on leave for the moment, perfected 
plans for its return to the ruins in January. 
It knew well what it faced. Grecourt itself 
was uninhabitable. There was only one store 
in all the region, at Roye. Food came in once 
a week through the army from Amiens. But 
at least the Unit had more resources than the 
brave — one might almost say the foolhardy — 
villagers, most of whom had staid on in the 
ruins after the expiration of temporary passes 
issued so that they might look over their prop- 
erty. In Paris, on the rue de RivoH, could 
be seen day after day the long cue of exiles, 
waiting their turn for those precious per- 
mits. Our permits were ready, and on New 



124 Ladies of Grecourt 

Year's Day we journeyed again to the Somme. 
This time, we made a distribution in bulk of 
blankets and warm clothing through all our 
villages. Shortly after, three of our num- 
ber, — all there were room for, — took up tem- 
porary quarters at Nesle. There Mme. and M. 
Vernes of the French Red Cross were already 
established. Nor did M. Vernes' new title of 
Delegue au Controle de la Somme prevent him 
from spreading jam on slices of bread and 
butter for the children's Christmas fete. 

From Nesle as a base, the country-side was 
searched to find living quarters. The choice 
fell upon Lannoy Farm, situated about a mile 
from Grecourt and placed at our disposal by 
the Baron de Thezy. Lannoy, in 1917, had 
been the hospitable goal of many a pleasant 
walk through the woods and across the fields. 
Then the Baroness de Thezy welcomed us, 
muddy as we were, into the gracious drawing- 
room which in former days had looked out 
over flower gardens and moat to the Baron's 
level acres. A fire always burned on the 
hearth, polished furniture and warm-colored 



"After the War'' 125 

upholstery gleamed in its light. There were 
cows in the stables, and pats of golden butter 
in the dairy which found their way to our table 
at Grecourt. Not that Lannoy even then was 
without its war history. The Baron himself 






'"^^p^^^^ 









i< 






LANNOY FARM 



was a hostage ; the farm had been occupied by 
a German commissary detachment whose bold 
lettering still adorned the massive gate. Its 
gray quadrangle of barns and stables was al- 
ready partially destroyed. In 1918, the de- 
struction was completed. Situated on the 
very edge of the Canal du Nord, it had been 



126 Ladies of Grecourt 

a stronghold of the British in the spring, and 
of the Germans in the fall. French guns, 
which drove the Germans out, left it a strik- 
ing ruin. Across the moat, in a newly made 
cemetery, lay marked with wooden crosses the 
graves of British, French, Germans and one 
American. On two British crosses were the 
dates: March 25, 1917. In the moat itself was 
debris of all kinds, including household furni- 
ture which the Germans had thrown out. Un- 
exploded ammunition littered the court; a 
mound of helmets, shells, equipment and 
wreckage of all kinds rose in the center; the 
chimneys were mined. But the Unit saw 
possibilities in some of the rooms which still 
had four sides, roofs and floors. From the 
French major at Nesle, they got a detail of 
twenty-five German prisoners to clean up 
Lannoy Farm. 

But had it not been for the girls themselves, 
that augean task would never have been ac- 
complished. They did not dress in rubber 
boots, riding breeches and peasants' smocks 
with any intention of shocking the conserva- 



"After the War" 127 

tives — should such have returned — of the 
Somme. They dressed for their work. Clean- 
ing' wells, hauling water, cooking, mending 
chairs, scrubbing, such was their daily round. 
And when at last in February Lannoy was 
filled by the happy and reunited Unit, it was 
only to serve its turn as a pied a terre for the 
more augean task of cleaning up Grecourt. 

For, after an inspection of all the ruins, in 
all possible places, the Director of the Unit 
came to the decision that there were no ruins 
to compare with its ruins. The peasants went 
back to their own homes, on their own land, 
whatever their condition. We would go back 
also, to be in fact as well as in name, the 
"Ladies of Grecourt." But it was not on the 
original site that our three baraques, begged 
from an engineer's dump of our old allies, the 
Third French Army, were erected. Back of 
the Baronne's garden was found a field, very 
muddy in those winter days, but destined with 
the spring to cherry and apple blossoms in 
the orchard, and song birds in the coverts of 
the encircling woods. 



CHAPTER X 

HOME TO GRECOURT 



rriHE matter of housing did not delay the 
-^ Unit's program of relief. Four mem- 
bers of the original Unit shaped the policies 




1 A I "^ y»*? U nil ill 

^ ^yf^ // 

"HOIVIE TO GRECOURT" 

of the new Unit at this time. One had become 
director, one was the farming expert, one the 
storekeeper and the fourth chauffeur, nurse's 
aid, sewing teacher and housekeeper as op- 

128 



Home to Grecourt 129 

portunity served. Of the eight newer mem- 
bers, one was a mechanic and took charge of 
the most important branch of our service at 
all times, transportation. There were a kin- 
dergartner and playground expert, three so- 
cial service workers, a farmer's assistant, and 
one of versatile accomplishments and fluent 
French, who became our Paris buyer. And 
yet, it is perhaps invidious to single out any 
member as versatile, or to stigmatize any other 
as a specialist. For this is how the Unit ap- 
peared to an early visitor:* 

"Spring was in the air. Every tree not 
killed by the boches was budding, the woods 
white with bloodroot or yellow for miles with 
jonquils. . . . Then here and there a garden; 
ruined brick walls, shell-pitted, with a center 
of primroses of all colors. A group working 
in the fields, a few here and there in the ruins 
of their home and town, all smiling at the 
girls in the Ford car; and realizing that it is 
these girls who made reconstruction possible 
once, and will do it again. This second time, 

*George B. McCallum, Treasurer of Smith College. 



130 Ladies of Grecourt 

when it is so much harder, the destruction so 
much greater. . , . Does a puncture and then 
a slow leak half an hour later bother the com- 
bination executive, doctor, nurse, chauffeur, 
farmer? Not a bit. Just a part of the job to 
get that load of mattresses dehvered. Does a 
child need its head cleaned, an infected finger 
cared for, bad burns dressed; does an invalid 
require two feet of water pumped from what 
was a good cellar, do the bones in the French 
cemetery unearthed by exploding shells re- 
quire reburial? — ^the Smith Unit does it. . . . 
They did, and are doing their job, with smiles, 
laughter, jokes, like any group of undergrad- 
uates, while their work-a-day clothes are dirty 
and torn, and their hands show the grime of 
hard work and the broken nails that go with 
it. . . . These Dames de Grecourt are law 
and order and hope in sixteen villages." 

Assuredly this second time the problem of 
reconstruction was harder. Our arrondisse- 
ment of Peronne had suffered most heavily of 
the five arrondissements of the Somme; of its 
120,549 hectares, 98,461 had been completely 



Home to Grecourt 131 

churned by shells. The most populous arron- 
dissement before the war, by midsummer even 
only 21,364 of its 93,378 normal population, 
or less than one fourth, had been able to re- 
turn. In the entire department, 208 villages 
were reckoned as totally destroyed and 176 as 
damaged. Among the 50,000 buildings — 
and still not counting towns such as Ham, 
Nesle or Roye — ^were 234 village halls, 254 
churches and 285 schools. In our own vil- 
lages there was not a single house undamaged ; 
the destruction of buildings was twice what it 
had been in 1917, and the destruction of fur- 
niture, farm equipment, orchards and stock 
was complete. As for industry, in rebuilding 
alone, since 1917, 10,500,000 francs had been 
expended by the Prefecture. This was a total 
loss. 

The Government, both at Paris and at Am- 
iens, was alive to its responsibilities. The law 
concerning the reparation of the damages of 
war passed in April, 1919, enacts as its first 
article that: "The Republic proclaims the 
equahty and the solidarity of all the French 



132 Ladies of Grecourt 

before the charges of the war." But these 
charges were — and are — stupendous, nor does 
an armistice constitute peace. "If we could 
only make people understand," wrote home 
the Director of the Unit, "that the end of hos- 
tilities did not bring the young men of France 
back from the dead, or raise their ruined homes 
from the ashes." She adds later: "France 
cannot demobilize. The French are still on 
a war, not a peace footing, making it impos- 
sible for the Government to turn its whole at- 
tention to reconstruction." An instance in 
point is that boys who had attained military 
age while prisoners in Germany, were sent at 
once to serve their military training. 

The Unit, itself homeless and a refugee, 
was to share with its villages the discourage- 
ments of "after the war." On the other hand, 
for the very reason that it had shared with 
them the vicissitudes of the war, it was quickly 
in a position to help. It went to the Somme 
at the invitation of the Ministry of the Liber- 
ated Regions in Paris, which gave it back its 
villages. But it found on arrival, that it must 



Home to Grecourt 133 

procure the prefectorial permission of the 
newly appointed Secretary-general of Recon- 
struction for the Somme in Amiens. And, 
having gone to Amiens, it was sent in turn to 
the new Delegate for the Coordination of Aid 
Societies of the Somme at Nesle. But the 
latter was our old friend M. Vernes. Need- 
less to say, the grant of our villages was con- 
firmed, M. Jourdain, the Director of Agri- 
culture for the Somme, gave us a ready co- 
operation based on our accomplishments be- 
fore the Drive. The Secretary of the Prefet 
received us literally with outstretched hands; 
he had seen the Unit evacuate Montdidier. 
Nor was the cooperation of the Third Army 
a dead letter. They still had their headquar- 
ters in Compiegne. And after the Prefecture 
had told us that we could not look to it for liv- 
ing quarters, because it had on hand only for- 
ty-seven of the ten thousand baraques needed, 
and after we had been refused by the army 
certain baraques which we had discovered in 
Hombleux, our Director went to headquarters 
in Compiegne. Not only did she receive the 



134 Ladies of Grecourt 

baraques, but the transport to haul them and 
the engineers to put them up. From that 
same army dump in Hombleux came besides, 
treasures as valuable and as varied as ever 
were washed up by the obliging sea for Swiss 
Family Robinson. 

By the first of February the rehef activities 
of the Unit were well established; orders for 
seeds had all been placed, buying of sheets 
by the thousand and soap by the ton were 
going forward in Paris, and our first carload 
of ten cows had arrived from the cow mer- 
chant with whom we dealt in the old city of 
Vannes in Brittany. From the south of 
France came as far as Paris crates of poultry, 
ducks, geese and rabbits, which we trans- 
shipped there. Yet it was thanks to the Bed 
Cross at Amiens and at Compiegne that our 
first relief supphes came through. From 
Compiegne we could truck for ourselves in a 
small way; from Amiens, through the good 
offices of the Prefecture, seven freight cars 
loaded with Red Cross blankets, woolens and 
furnishings arrived in February at Nesle. 



Home to Grecourt 135 

From this time until the first of May, the 
chief duty of the entire staff of the Unit was 
the hauhng and the delivery of goods. Two 
of our six cars, though shipped from America 
in 1918, were in March, 1919, still at Bor- 
deaux. A trip was made the entire length of 
France, to get them. The chauffeurs' account 
of this Odyssey begins with their threatened 
arrest en route by an American Army detec- 
tive "for a crime committed in Bordeaux by 
four American women. 'One was very tall' 

(here he looked at ) , 'one was very short' 

(from his scrutiny I could not help but feel 
that I was number two), 'one had gray hair.' 
( He assured us there was a woman in the next 
compartment answering to that descrip- 
tion) ." As owing to the process of transfer- 
ring our personnel from the American Red 
Cross to the French Government, our trav- 
elers were "a trifle short on papers," it took 
them some time to establish their identity as 
"members of a Unit doing noble work miles 
from the city of Bordeaux." The cars, when 
finally located, were found to be terribly mil- 



136 Ladies of Grecourt 

dewed, rusted and warped. However, the ac- 
count ends with the arrival in Grecourt, where 
"we are still trying to get the kinks out of 
our backs and the delightful swaying motion 
of touring in Fords out of our brains." 

A companion picture on transportation is 
the following, dated two weeks later. "To- 
morrow, when we have to be in Gournay, 100 
kilometers away, with a car to bring hens from 
the hen market ... a freight carload of 
wardrobes arrives at Nesle, a freight carload 
of potatoes also reaches Nesle from Amiens, 
the man from Brittany arrives with two car- 
loads of cows and several young calves that 
cannot yet walk, and at just that moment the 
two army horses we use are sick and have to 
go back to St. Quentin, so we are obliged to 
do what we can to unload the awful conglom- 
eration in the very short time the railroad al- 
lows us, with our own autos which can at best 
carry two wardrobes a trip." There were 
twenty-seven wardrobes. It is five miles to 
Nesle. 

But there was little complaint on the part 



Home to Grecourt 137 

of the Unit when goods at last arrived ! Their 
non-arrival, and worse their non-existence in 
war-stripped France, is the ever wearying ob- 
stacle. Three days' search in Paris was re- 
warded by the finding of a dozen odd spades, 
when hundreds were ordered ; the replacing of 
the library lost in the retreat of 1918 took 
months of expert searching; broken pumps 
could not be repaired for lack of leather wash- 
ers, outhouses could not be built for lack of 
lumber. In fact, everything is not only much 
dearer, but much scarcer than in 1917 in the 
trade centers, transportation is periodically at 
a standstill, and in the devastated regions 
themselves, there is worse than nothing. For 
it would be far easier to abandon the ruined 
sites of farms and villages and to let the land 
grow up to its ancient forests, as some have 
advocated, than to clear the wreckage of war. 
As in 1917, with reconstruction proper, we 
had nothing to do. Our lines of relief were 
obvious, but they were limited in two direc- 
tions by the Government. We were requested 
to provide no food, and not to give, but to sell 



138 Ladies of Grecourt 

our supplies. Food, on a carefully estimated 
per capita basis, was under the control of the 
Government. The selling instead of the giv- 
ing of supplies was in accordance with the 
terms of the law of war indemnities, which 
provided, as in 1917, a living allowance for 
refugees, and a final reimbursement of all 
losses, provided these losses were replaced in 
hind. This applied to cows, poultry, beds, 
mattresses, stoves, garden implements and 
furnishings of all sorts in which we dealt. 
Our contribution was the buying, transporting 
and delivering, for which service no charge 
was made, and the reduced prices at which 
we sold. For cows, however, as the price came 
back to us from the Prefecture, we made no 
reduction beyond the wholesale price. For all 
other commodities, a reduction of one half 
to one third of the cost prevailed. But in spe- 
cial cases, we did give outright, as when we 
made initial distributions in bulk throughout 
the villages, or outfitted some family just re- 
turned against the cold. Nor did we always 
sell for cash, because the long promised indem- 



Home to Grecourt 139 

nity is long delayed. In our region, the affi- 
davits of losses were not made out until Sep- 
tember, 1918. And this was merely the first 
step to the appraisal of the property before 
special courts of inquiry and adjustment. So, 
it was often only a voucher which passed be- 
tween the purchaser and us. 

As in 1917, the store fared through the vil- 
lages each week; it also stocked as before half 
a dozen little groceries. But gradually the 
gaping streets of Ham and Nesle began to be 
repeopled. Ham especially organized a vig- 
orous reconstruction. Narrow gauge tracks, 
such as had formerly been used in carrying up 
ammunition, were laid in the streets ; hundreds 
of German prisoners were employed, and tons 
of broken bricks and mortar from that once 
lovely town were hauled by the trainload to 
dumps outside the old historic walls. A mer- 
cer's shop was the first to open here; soon 
groceries, meats, vegetables, fruits, hardware 
and baskets were advertised by wooden or can- 
vas signs tacked above some kind of a shelter. 
By summer, one met pushcarts like those in 



140 Ladies of Grecourt 

the foreign quarters of our cities, hawking no- 
tions and dry goods through the village 
streets. A woman was usually the vender, 
and often little children clung to her skirts. 
"What would you?" said one of these encoun- 
tered one day five miles from her home. "My 
husband was killed in the war, I have the 
children, I must work." 

In favor of these small merchants, our store 
gradually raised its prices and at length 
closed its doors in September, 1919. In the 
seven months since it opened, it had done a 
business of 152,363,000 francs, reckoned by 
sale and not by purchase price. When the 
White truck, loaded to capacity, made its final 
trip, there was universal lamentation. "It is 
you," said the women, "who have kept the 
prices down. Now they will soar — oh, la, la!" 
But it was not merely on the score of bar- 
gains — in which the Picard is a true cousin of 
the Yankee — that they regretted the store- 
keepers. The event of their lives vanished 
with them, nor could they but believe that the 
"Dames de Grecourt" would have no more 



Home to Grecourt 141 

reason to stay in their midst. It was the be- 
ginning of the end. 

But there remained one department that 
could keep on indefinitely, one might almost 
say, in the devastated Somme. The Picard 
farm knows no slack season; the year round, 
summer and winter the farmer is busy. And 
our farm department is^still busy and without 
competition in supplying primarily the needs 
of the small farm. The landed proprietor 
looks to the Government for advances of capi- 
tal, to the Government batteries of tractors 
for plowing and harrowing, to the Ministry 
of Agriculture and to the agricultural depart- 
ment of the Prefecture for seeds, for stock, 
and even in some cases for farm machinery. 
He bands himself with others into local asso- 
ciations, which are federated into depart- 
mental and finally into national cooperatives 
for the common holding and use of tractors, 
the regulating of farm labor and the buying 
of supplies. But the organization of coopera- 
tives for the small farmers was backward in 
the Somme. In lieu of this, we became vir- 



142 Ladies of Grecourt 

tually such a source of supply to them. We 
had our tractor and our sulky plow, which 
up to the middle of September had plowed 
and harrowed two hundred acres. The work 
was plotted week by week among the villages, 
at the price- per acre which the Government 
charged. In the same length of time, we had 
supplied over a thousand farm implements, 
6,000 kilos of seed potatoes, 600 assortments 
of garden seeds, and 142 kilos of other 
seeds of different varieties. To restock the 
farms, we had brought in 110 cows, 2 bulls, 
28 goats, 21 sheep, 69 pigs, 1,500 rabbits, 
3,000 hens, 1,200 pullets, 550 geese, 850 ducks, 
27 turkeys and 1,100 eggs for setting. By 
fall the department had ordered, surveyed 
and set out, under direction of an expert, five 
thousand trees. Most of these were fruit trees 
for individual owners, but included in the 
order was a little grove of nut trees for each 
village. 

These totals have mounted from truckloads 
of a hundred hens brought from Paris, from 
all day marketing in Gom-nay-en-Bray, until 



Home to Grecourt 143 

one day the market there went on strike 
against the high cost of Hving, and the pur- 
chasers helped themselves at will, and there 
was no more market. After that catastrophe, 
the weekly trip of the farm truck was to 
Beauvais. 

They represent conferences in Amiens over 
supply houses for seeds and trees, and more 
conferences in Paris with nurserymen. At 
one time gasoline failed for the tractor, in 
fact for all the tractors in the region. Then 
the farm department was told that it might 
have all the gasoline it could carry, by going 
for it to Havre! Transportation by rail had 
become clogged. 

They represent unbounded energy, hard 
work and long hours given to a well loved 
task. They represent, too, the disinterested 
help of our farm assistants. There are Marie 
Pottier and her soldier husband returned from 
the war. Faithful morning and night at the 
milking is Marie. Her husband rejoices in 
driving our tractor and guiding our plow. 
There is Demaison, a protege of the Mayor 



144 



Ladies of Grecourt 



of Hombleux, and caretaker of the second es- 
tate of importance in the village these many- 
years. He was a prisoner in Belgium in 1917. 
But to see him now, never ruffled, always will- 
ing and always dependable, one would think 




"EACH IN HER TURN" 



him without a care. He has no care which he 
puts before the interests of the farm and his 
place therein. Were the Dames called away 
by stress of events, Demaison took charge, 
and that with a good sense equaling his good 
will. No cajoling housewife got the better 
of him. "Each in her turn, each in her turn, 
Madame," his calm voice rose above the most 



Home to Grecourt 145 

congested of pig markets in our barnyard, 
and his strong arms enforced law. His ally 
and ours on these great occasions was M. 
Guy, the cow merchant of Vannes. After a 
week's trip, it might be, in a freight car with 
cows or pigs or goats, M. Guy would appear 
from the direction of Nesle, a trifle soiled, but 
with the courtliest of hat doffing and the suav- 
est of greetings, announcing the arrival of his 
wares. No respite for him; after a garrulous 
breakfast, he assisted in the bringing up of 
his flocks and his herds, and became the pre- 
siding genius of the sale. Where the clamor 
was loudest, and the press of purchasers great- 
est, there was M. Guy, Panama hat pushed 
back from his Semitic face, black smock envel- 
oping his sturdy form. And above the clamor, 
his voice, mellifluent, convincing, "The little 
white pig? You have the eyes, Madame. 
There, in your apron, one moment. What a 
sweet face he has!" 



CHAPTER XI 

LIFE AMONG THE RUINS 

"|3UT reconstruction means much more to 
•*-^ the French Government than agricul- 
tural or industrial or material rebuilding. On 
the shattered walls of village hi^s, overlap- 
ping the proclamations of the Prefecture in re- 
gard to housing, on the doors of the country 
churches, one finds affixed such posters as: 
PupiLLEs DE LA Nation. La France adopte les 
orphalins dont le pere, la mere ou le soutien 
de famille a peri, au cours de la guerre de 
1914, victime militaire ou civile de I'ennemi." 
By the law of July 27, 1917, these children, 
so priceless in the face of the 3,000,000 soldiers 
killed, become the wards of France, to be 
reared and educated according to their apti- 
tudes and deserts. Supplementing this Gov- 
ernment service is another, semi-public in 
character, called L'lficole pour I'Elcole. The 

146 



Life Among the Ruins 147 

public schools of France, whose role through- 
out the war has been one of distinguished pa- 
triotism, have taken it upon themselves to sup- 
ply the needs of their brother students in the 
devastated area. Thus each department has 
been adopted by one or more academies, our 
own department of the Somme by the Acad- 
emy of Toulouse. All this, it will be under- 
stood, is being done in addition to the liberal 
system of scholarships administered as usual 
by the State and by the several departments. 
The impetus of this intellectual and moral 
reconstruction was felt by us as it had not 
been in the pioneer days of 1917. There was 
no longer any question as to the utility of 
libraries, for example, compared with woolen 
underwear. Both were needed, and in the 
eyes of the State, both were equally important. 
The book would keep the child out of very 
real mischief, for not only were the fields sown 
with unexploded shells; shells and hand gren- 
ades by the thousand were scattered along the 
roads, in underground shelters — and where is 
the boy who would not explore them? — and in 



148 Ladies of Grecourt 

great dumps, just as they had been left by the 
fleeing enemy. The army, with its squads of 
German prisoners, was eternally busy remov- 
ing these menaces, and not a day went by with- 
out its series of detonations and its columns 
of smoke thrown high against the horizon. 
But there again was danger from flying frag- 
ments. Half a dozen children in our villages 
lost eyes or hands, and one, the only son of 
a widowed mother, was burned to death, in 
accidents of this sort. 

Because we were on the spot, we were asked 
to compile the list of the mutilated children 
of our neighborhood, who stood in need of vo- 
cational instruction. We recommended chil- 
dren as beneficiaries of the fund raised by the 
American soldiers for the children of France 
through the Stars and Stripes. Thanks to 
special donations, we have cared for four httle 
orphans ourselves. We kept our shoulder to 
the sorely tried machinery of government, and 
it is not too much to say that we forced public 
attention at least and hastened the opening of 
our schools. The first to start, in April, 1919, 



Life Among the Ruins 149 

were those of Esmery-Hallon, Sancourt and 
Brouchy. For these schools and all the 
schools as they opened, we provided so far 
as obtainable equipment of tables, benches, 
stoves, blackboards and books. In all of them 
we instituted once more the sewing hour, the 
play hour, games and gymnastics once a week. 
To each village as our library grew, we sent 
a collection of books, which was exchanged 
every fortnight. From time to time, parties 
for all the children within reaching distance 
were given again at Grecourt. At the first 
of these, in March, we had one hundred and 
fifty happy guests. 

The teachers of our schools, it should be 
said, needed no urging. From captivity, from 
exile, from the colors, the teachers, the same 
teachers of before the war, came back to the 
villages. But not all; two at least are in- 
scribed in the "Book of Gold" contained in 
the Report of the Prefet for 1919. "Tueal'en- 
nemi, Mellier, instituteur a Hombleux; mort 
de suite de sa blessure, Duwequet, instituteur- 
adjoint a Hombleux." No praise can be too 



150 Ladies of Grecourt 

great of the devotion and intelligence of these 
teachers: M. Caron of Esmery-Hallon who on 
his demobilization rejoined his wife, also a 
teacher; M. Lefebvre of Sancourt who stuck 
to his post throughout the German occupa- 
tion; M. Petit of Brouchy who on the con- 
trary was taken as a hostage by the enemy in 
1914; M. Didaux of Douilly who was an exile 
and taught school in Ercheu until his own 
baraque was at last ready, perched like a vane 
on that bare and windy hill; M. Devillers of 
Eppeville who himself begged most of his 
equipment, or gave it out of his slender purse. 
Our help from the teachers meant more 
than it would have in America, where one is 
wont to say that the teacher is a social cipher. 
In France the primary teacher is a power in 
the community. He is always secretary to the 
mayor, and in the mayor's absence acts for him. 
There is no one except perhaps the cure who 
knows his neighborhood as does he. Nor are 
he and the cure at cross purposes. The sep- 
aration of church and state, in our districts 
at least, has not dissolved the strong bonds be- 



Life Among the Ruins 151 

tween church and school. "Very catholic" are 
the teachers as well as the peasants of our 
corner of Picardy. 

It was when we launched our campaign of 
public health in the villages that we appreci- 
ated most the knowledge and good will of our 
teachers. We were fortunate in having as the 
head of this branch of our work, the former 
director of rural Red Cross nursing in Amer- 
ica, and also in having as her assistant an 
Enghsh war nurse, trained in Paris and 
speaking French like a native. She carried 
into the dingy Somme an exotic charm of per- 
sonality, for she was born on Cyprus and her 
mother was a Greek. Our physician, Dr. 
Anna M. Gove, was, like Miss Griffin, not 
an alumna of Smith College. But no alumna 
could have been more loyal, or have rendered 
more disinterested service. 

The medical situation in our community 
was canvassed. At Nesle and at Ham there 
were stationed two army doctors charged with 
the care of civilians. But they had inadequate 
transportation; up to September, 1919, the 



152 Ladies of Grecourt 

doctor at Ham had no automobile at his dis- 
posal. They lacked instruments and medi- 
cines. In particular, they had no equipment 
for confinement cases, and most of them — for 
the military doctor was a transitory quantity 
— no experience in this line. In France, it 
is the sage-femme who usually attends these 
cases. There was one sage-femme, also with- 
out means of transportation, at Ham. 

As for hospitals, the civilian foundations at 
Ham and at Nesle had been partially ruined 
and totally stripped. The sisters, who nursed, 
were still in exile. Meantime, military hos- 
pitals took civilian cases until they moved 
away. During the summer of 1919, there was 
a period of two months when Ham had not 
even a physician. But happily by this time 
a former physician at Nesle had been de- 
mobilized and resumed his practice, and the 
Hospice at Nesle had been put in order 
and the sisters had been reinstalled. We our- 
selves used these hospitals and the very com- 
plete and efficient plant of the American 
Women's Hospitals at Blerancourt. 



Life Among the Ruins 153 

The first care of our medical staff was to 
put itself at the disposal of the local physicians 
and the midwife. Instruments and medicines 
and hospital supplies were given, and trans- 
portation as often as possible. Thus practical 
cooperation was effected. Nio objection was 
raised to our free dispensaries, a system which 
dovetailed into that of the public charities of 
each commune, whereby the country practi- 
tioner is paid a yearly stipend for the care of 
the indigent. Since the war, he is also paid a 
salary and assisted in replacing his losses by 
special grants from the State, The physician 
therefore welcomed us as allies in covering his 
difficult field. 

As in 1917, dispensaries were held weekly 
in the distant villages, and three times a week 
at Grecourt. A complete physical examina- 
tion of all school children was started, and one 
hundred cases of adenoids and tonsils were 
taken to Blerancourt and returned therefrom 
in our cars. The dental clinics were held at 
first once a week at Grecourt, and were as 
popular as the pig sales. Five years without 



154 Ladies of Grecourt 

dental care, and in many instances a lifetime 
without a toothbrush, brought a plentiful har- 
vest. Dr. DeL. Kinney of Blerancourt Hospi- 
tal worked tirelessly and skillfully and fol- 
lowed up her pulling clinics with others devoted 
to repairs. Chairs were brought out and placed 
in the shade of the big plane tree for expectant 
patients, who included the quality of the coun- 
tryside. During the winter, Dr. Kinney's en- 
tire time was given to our villages. 

The public health nurses meantime made a 
house-to-house survey of living conditions, 
paying particular attention to wells and out- 
houses. The findings in Esmery-Hallon, our 
largest village, are typical. Of ninety- six 
shelters, housing nearly five hundred souls, 
half were without outhouses, and two thirds 
without wells. Most of the wells in use had 
been cleaned, however, but none had been ana- 
lyzed. The sanitary condition speaks for 
itself. The results of this survey were given 
by request to the mayor, who transmitted 
recommendations based on them to the Pre- 
fecture. The latter was most willing to sup- 



Life Among the Ruins 155 

ply lumber and disinfectants. But three 
months later, it was through a donation from 
the Vassar Unit that we were able to secure 
enough lumber for model outhouses, and it 
was in our cars that disinfectants were brought 
from Amiens and distributed. 

Throughout the spring, the nurses regis- 
tered and visited prenatal cases which were on 
the increase with the return of the men to their 
families. But while our nurses gave prenatal 
and postnatal care, the confinements were in 
the care of the midwife at Ham. She was 
consulted and aided to the best of our ability, 
and in turn notified us of every new case com- 
ing to her. This plan worked admirably, ex- 
cept that there should have been more mid- 
wives. The patients themselves were intelli- 
gent and receptive. Supplementary feeding, 
systematic weighing, hints on hygiene, aU 
were well received. 

In fact, the monthly reports of the medical 
department show that our community was a 
remarkably healthy one. The predicted after- 
battle epidemics did not sweep over us, the 



156 Ladies of Grecourt 

overcrowding, the insanitation of summer, the 
cold of winter, claimed comparatively few vic- 
tims. Our school inspection brought out the 
fact that our children are undersized com- 
pared to those of Paris. This might point to 
malnutrition were it not offset by the fact that 
they average overweight. The older people 
too have demonstrated a surprising resiliency 
since the depressing winter of 1917. Happi- 
ness is the best of tonics, and each reunited 
family in its bit of a ruin was pitifully happy 
to be at home. 

During the summer, health clubs for the 
children were started in the villages. A better 
description of their purpose and of their popu- 
larity could not be given than that contained 
in the report of the secretary of the club at 
Verlaines at its second meeting, September 
3, 1919. Simone is a war orphan, fifteen years 
of age, a slender brunette with rufEed curls 
and shy brown eyes. There were eighteen 
present at this open air reunion under a shady 
tree. 

"Since January, 1919, when I returned to 



Life Among the Ruins 157 

my native place, from which the enemy had 
driven me by his acts of horror in burning our 
farms and our houses, I have seen once or 
twice a week the brave and devoted American 
ladies going about everywhere among our 
ruins, informing themselves as to the unfor- 
tunates who were returning to their destroyed 
homes. To come to their aid, they brought 
a bed, a mattress, clothing to meet their great- 
est need. 

"Thanks to them, gayety has returned to 
our saddened young faces; now there is the 
ronde, there is the football, there is the sew- 
ing. Oh, how good these days seemed to us, 
and how quickly they passed ! On the twenty- 
seventh of August, it was to form a club of 
hygiene that they called us together. What 
good fortune; we had need of it, the war hav- 
ing deprived us of it of necessity. 

"They quickly called to order the gathering 
of children and explained to them how the 
club would be formed; those who were re- 
ceived as members of this club would wear on 
one side a little pin in the form of a shield. 



158 Ladies of Grecourt 

In the middle would be written: Health. 
They distributed to each a leaflet on which the 
twelve commandments of health were written, 
and they explained them to us. 

"They made us choose a president, a vice- 
president and a secretary. 

President, Roger Rossignol. 
Vice-President, Paul Dethouy. 
Secretary, Simone Vicaine. 

"We three retired to one side, and the 
twenty-four members of the club gave their 
names to the Secretary. 

"Then they gave some little leaflets to the 
Secretary to distribute to each of the mem- 
bers of the club, and recommended that they 
read them at home. 

"They distributed some brushes and paste 
for the care of our teeth. The President rose 
and told us that the meeting was over, but 
that it would reconvene next Wednesday. 
After that the crowd followed along toward a 
building, and there the American ladies nailed 



Life Among the Ruins 159 

up fhree great posters very necessary to the 
inhabitants of the commune. 

"The American lady photographed the 
group. 




"THEY DISTRIBUTED BRUSHES AND PASTE" 

"And with that we dismissed the party for 
a week. 

"And we all went away content." 

By such patient beginnings was the way 
paved for the large program we had in view, 
of public health committees to be elected by 
the villages themselves and federated and al- 
lied to the Department of Hygiene of the 



i6o Ladies of Grecourt 

Prefecture of the Somme. Much tact was 
necessary, particularly after Dr. Gove was 
called to America. Professional welfare 
nurses are almost unknown in France. For 
centuries, it is the sisters who have been the 
nurses of the poor, until the disestablishment 
of the Church in 1907. Hence there was no 
tradition to build upon in establishing cooper- 
ation between the rural physician and the ru- 
ral nurse. 

The first meeting called to consider the 
formation of a committee of public health was 
held in the stable of the Mayor of Buverchy. 
There were present the Mayor, his wife, his 
daughter, the Mayor of Grecourt and two 
nurses of the Smith College Unit. Their 
seats were plank benches rescued frctoi the 
former French encampment in the town ; their 
feet rested on the earth; through the open 
door — the only means of light and air — passed 
from time to time an inquiring duck or hen, 
to be shooed softly out by the young girl. But 
no more intelligent nor sympathetic counsel 
could have been given than that of these four 



Life Among the Ruins i6i 

peasants. They comprehended, they ap- 
proved, they named the public spirited citizens 
of their diminutive communes, and suggested, 
as a practical measure, that the committee be 
composed in each case of an odd number, in 
order that action be not blocked. In that poor 
Buverchy, where even the dead were disin- 
terred by the battles of 1918, public moneys 
are available for the carrying on of this work, 
and besides, said M. Carpentier, simply, 
"while there will be those in our commune 
who cannot give money, they will give the 
gift of the heart. They will do anything they 
can to help, visit and care for the sick." It 
was this same Mayor who wrote one day to us : 
"It is thanks to you that we now have our 
barnyards full of fowls of all kinds, of rabbits, 
of sheep, of pigs, cows, etc. — which we enjoy 
and which cause us to forget our evil days — ■ 
it is thanks to you too that we have our houses 
garnished with beds, linen, dishes, kitchen 
ware, furniture, in short everything indispens- 
able for housekeeping!" What a picture as 
one looks about his hovel, a picture at least of 



i62 Ladies of Grecourt 

gratitude. Surely with such mayors, there is 
no limit to the good we ought to be able to 
do. 

By November, the committees had been or- 
ganized in our villages and federated and in 
addition an advisory committee appointed 
which includes all the doctors and the heads 
of sanitary corps in Ham and Nesle, influen- 
tial citizens and representatives of neighbor- 
ing relief societies. The official recognition of 
the departmental Service d' Hygiene has been 
won. Dr. Lacomme, the head of the ser- 
vice, is himself addressing public meetings to 
explain our plan to the community and the 
wife of the Prefet is the chairman of the 
advisory committee. 

For this rural nursing, though begun and 
financed by us, must eventually be taken over 
by the French. This transfer is also in accord 
with the plans of the French Government. In 
April, 1919, a notable departure in the public 
health service was launched by the Ministry 
of the Liberated Regions. To each of the 
prefectures of the devastated departments was 



Life Among the Ruins 163 

sent a woman delegate, called an Inspectrice, 
charged with the duty of investigating not only 
sanitary conditions, but all private relief agen- 
cies within the department. She is answerable 
directly to the Prefet, but is herself appointed 
on the recommendation of the director of a 
newly created bureau of the Ministry. This 
director is a woman. It is hoped that this 
bureau, interested in public health, especially 
as it concerns child welfare, will eventually 
absorb the functions of all private societies in 
the devastated area, into a pubhc health ser- 
vice of the State. Rural nurses, school nurses 
and social workers are envisaged in this ear- 
nest effort to save the children of France. Al- 
ready the Ecole de Puericulture to train such 
workers, endowed by the University of Paris, 
the City of Paris, and the American Red 
Cross, has been opened in Paris. Its plant 
is the Edith Cavell Hospital, its sponsor the 
Faculty of Medicine of the University of 
Paris. Upon its board of directors, the direc- 
tor of the inspectors representing the Minis- 
try of the Liberated Regions has a place. She 



164 Ladies of Grecourt 

is well known to the Smith Unit, as is the In- 
spector of the Somme. But she herself says: 
"Wait. This is a new venture for women. 
You may tell of our work, yes, but not our 
names. We must guard them for all suspicion 
of notoriety." 



CHAPTER XII 

COMMUNITY PLANNING 

THE taking over by the Government of 
all forms of reconstruction, social, moral 
and material, will if feasible sound the 
knell of organized private effort. Twenty-five 
years, it is estimated, will be required to re- 
build the life of Northern France. So stu- 
pendous a task can only be undertaken by the 
Government. According to the terms of the 
Treaty, it will be financed by Germany. 

France has definite ideas at which she is 
aiming in her reconstruction ; she has many ex- 
periments to be tried out in the Region Lib- 
erie. The basis of most of them is a prin- 
ciple antagonistic to the deep seated individu- 
alism of the farmer, dependent only within 
the memory of men not yet old upon common 
effort, such as factories, for the necessities of 
life. Fifty years ago, yes, twenty-five years 

165 



i66 Ladies of Grecourt 

ago, the Picard farm was self-supporting, in- 
dependent, feudaL Now on every hand the 
farmer hears: "Form associations, make a 
union, own your machinery in common, work 
your fields in common. It is the only way 
in which you can survive." And he is doing it. 
The priests, unable to return to ruined par- 
ishes, revive the monastic community, and 
serve their parishes from this center. There 
are cooperative stores and cooperatives of re- 
construction, No man builds to himself these 
days; the plans for the entire village pass for 
approval through the hands of legally consti- 
tuted authorities on sanitation and construc- 
tion. The very soul of the village is to become 
composite. 

At least, such is the trend of events mir- 
rored in the Congres Interallie d'Hygiene So- 
ciale held in Paris in April, 1919, At about 
the same time there came to us the following 
recommendation from the High Commission 
for the Coordination of Relief: "Le Conseil 
Superieur de I'Office National de Coordina- 
tion des Secours rappelle aux villes etrangeres 



Community Planning 167 

et fran9aises, aux bienfaiteurs etrangers et 
fran9ais qui, de toutes parts, demandent, 
comme un honneur, de participer a la recon- 
stitution de nos regions liberees, que la charge 
pecuniaire de cette reconstitution que I'Eltat 
fran9ais assume integrealment incombe a nos 
ennemis qui les ont devastees et emet le voeu 
que toute la propagande necessaire soit faite 
pour que les generosites amies qui s'offrent 
pour cette reconstitution s'emploient a doter 
nos departements liberes, villes et campagnes, 
de foyers sembables aux Maisons communes 
anglo-saxonnes, centres d'hygiene et de saines 
distractions pour Famelioration physique et 
morale de la race si durement eprouvee par 
I'invasion, 'Foyers de la Victoire' qui pour- 
raient devenir pour chaque cite renaissante, 
grande ou petite, a la fois le musee local de 
la guerre et le monument eleve a la Memoire 
de ses Heros." 

This community center is well described in 
detail by Mile. Louise Compain, in her patri- 
otic pamphlet, "La Grand' Pitie des Cam- 
pagnes de France." 



i68 Ladies of Grecourt 

"Next to the church, and not in opposition 
to it (it too will live as long as men have need 
of its aid, and will transform itself slowly with 
this very need) the democratic state ought to 
raise the House of the People, where through 
the eyes, through the spoken word and 
through actions will be achieved the culture of 
the heart. This house, of which we are going 
to explain in general the appearance and 
basic functions, was not born of our imagina- 
tion; the shores of the Pacific knew it in young 
America. To these hardy peoples who ex- 
ploit a new soil, it brings the bread of the 
spirit and the joy of art. Europe and France 
are ignorant of it as yet. Nevertheless, for 
our people, inured to contact with an old land, 
why should it not serve also as the center of 
light and of beauty, the attraction of which 
would hold them to the place of their toil, 
which would thus become easier and happier? 
"We shall now attempt a description of it: 
"On the ground floor, shower baths, dis- 
pensary, consultation room for nursing moth- 
ers. All the trifling ills from which infants 



Community Planning 169 

and parents suffer, maladies of the eyes, chil- 
blains, felons are eared for here, and here too 
is found advice to guide mothers in the care 
of the newly born. On the second story, at- 
tractive rooms for lectures and for clubs. The 
library is amply provided with books which 
do not all treat of agriculture. There can be 
found our best poets, biographies of heroes 
of character and of science, histories, some 
novels. The newspapers kept on the table are 
picked for their diverse opinions. The con- 
ferences which are given in the adjoining 
room, treat of different subjects also. Some 
contribute to the knowledge of agriculture or 
of housekeeping, others to the art of living, 
others simply to the amusement of the audi- 
ence. The House for Every One, or House of 
Social Life, or Neighborhood House (the 
name matters little) possesses a good appara- 
tus for moving pictures. Thanks to that, it 
gives exhibits where one travels in foreign 
countries, or marvels at assisting in the phe- 
nomena of daily life, like the sprouting of a 
tree, or the growth of a chick in the egg. This 



1 70 Ladies of Grecourt 

apparatus serves too to illustrate by examples 
social subjects broached here and up to this 
time carefully excluded from our public in- 
struction. Is cooperation spoken of? One 
visits in England and in Belgium the factories 
which teach at Manchester the collective ge- 
nius of our English friends, or at Gand the 
initiative genius of an Anseele. Is a new law 
about to be enacted by Parliament? It is ex- 
plained, discussed, commented on at the 
House. In this way, all the misunderstand- 
ings which gave rise to that in regard to work- 
ingmen's pensions are dissipated and the full 
effect of the law is gained. Gatherings for 
diversion alternate with these gatherings for 
study. There is singing, there are plays, a 
little theatrical company is formed. But 
above all, the House becomes a place of as- 
sembly, of joyous and happy assemblies, 
where discussions occur without coarseness, 
where the "night-owls" find the attraction of 
reading and of conversations in common. It 
is the hearth of the village. Those who as 
little children form the habit of passing their 



Community Planning 171 

hours of leisure in these pleasant rooms, will 
always return to them. It will transform ru- 
ral life and, little by little, the rural spirit. 

"For this House will not be simply an or- 
ganism ; erected to act upon souls, it will have 
a soul, that of the social educator responsible 
for guiding and vivifying it. Formed by 
travel, by extensive reading, pupils too of a 
higher normal school of the people yet to be 
created, these men and these women are truly 
missionaries who go about their own country- 
sides, carrying to the disinherited of the soil 
the good news of beauty for every one and of 
genuine civilization. Next door to this in- 
structress (I have an idea that the Neighbor- 
hood House will be directed most frequently 
by a woman of large and adaptive spirit and 
maternal heart) a visiting nurse will also live. 
In the morning she is found in the dispensary. 
Once that service is completed, she sets out on 
her bicycle and goes to give that care to the 
sick which the doctor of the region has in- 
dicated. It is she who does the cupping, lanc- 
ing and bandaging for those patients who can- 



172 Ladies of Grecourt 

not come in the morning. These cares are of 
a material kind; very quickly she becomes an 
adviser, a friend, the purveyor of indispens- 
able hygiene." 

It is interesting for us as Americans to note 
the source of this idea of a community center, 
which Mile. Compain elsewhere states to be 
the American public library. Would that we 
had more of them in our own rural communi- 
ties ! Credit is sometimes given to the Ameri- 
can Red Cross and sometimes to the Young 
Men's Christian Association for demonstrat- 
ing the success of such centers in the Foyers 
du Soldat, and after the Armistice in Foyers 
Civils. 

At all events, the community center being 
the recommendation of the French Govern- 
ment, and the first constructive suggestion of 
importance given by it to private agencies, it 
became our object to realize it. There could 
have been no plan which would so well have 
perpetuated the type of social work we were 
doing; we had the library, the cinema, the 
gymnastic classes, the public health nurses 



Community Planning 173 

and the dispensary. In short, we had at 
Grecourt from the beginning a social settle- 
ment. All that was asked of us now was to 
house our work in a more or less permanent 
structure, to endow it and eventually to turn 
it over to France. This was to be our con- 
tribution to reconstruction, in a field un- 
touched by Government aid so far, but 
sanctioned by the Government, and destined 
to become in time a subsidized public work. 

The intelligent public opinion of the 
Somme was back of this enterprise. The 
Secours d' Urgence had already opened a 
foyer at Roye, and the French Hed Cross an- 
other at Ham in a baraque which was the 
gift of the American Red Cross. The com- 
munity of priests at Ham preached the gospel 
of the Maison pour Tous through all the vil- 
lages. Most opportunely, the Prefecture ad- 
vocated in earnest language a campaign 
against alcoholism. "Of all the problems of 
our epoch, the most important, the most grave, 
as it is the most disquieting for the future of 
France, is, without contradiction, that of re- 



174 Ladies of Grecourt 

population. ... In the field of economies in 
particular, which is the only one reviewed 
here, it is necessary in order to obtain produc- 
tion at moderate cost, to possess abundant and 
robust labor. Now before the war, there was 
already well-founded complaint throughout 
the domain of agriculture, of its rarity and 
equally of its inefficiency, in consequence of 
the lamentable effects of alcoholism which had 
come to add diminished strength to insufficient 
numbers."* 

Before the war also, one deplored in the 
villages the vicious effects of estaminets and 
cabarets which sapped the old-time country 
virtues. In our region these were especially 
flourishing, for the Picard peasant has ever 
been a hard drinker, and the leading industry 
of our countryside had become the raising and 
distilling of the sugar beet. But the drink of 
the farmers still remained a cider of acrid 
flavor renowned for many centuries. With 
the cutting of the orchards and the destruction 
of presses, cider is scarcely procurable now, 

* Report of the Pr^fet, August, 1919. 



Community Planning 175 

nor was there a sugar beet distillery left in the 
Somme. Alcohol is therefore imported in the 
form of beers and of wines. The latter are 
high in price, and one hears on all sides, in- 
juriously adulterated. Yet the consumption 
is on the increase ; the estaminet or cabaret in- 
variably opens in the best house in the village, 
or rather in the best houses ; for the law allows 
one to every hundred inhabitants, and the in- 
habitants seem to be counted on a pre-war 
basis. With no other gathering place through 
the sunmier than the rustic wine garden, and 
none during the winter than the warm and 
lighted barroom, gay with barmaids' laughter, 
what wonder that the men, and the women too, 
drown for a time their discouragements? 

It is in competition with these bars that 
the Maison pour Tous will be open night and 
day. Ours is located in Hombleux, which dis- 
putes with Esmery-Hallon the distinction of 
being the largest of our villages. It is said 
by some to have been the intellectual center 
of the neighborhood, although this assumption 
would be hotly contested in Esmery, and in 



176 Ladies of Grecourt 

Canisy the folk of Hombleux are known to 
be great hypocrites. Against all this local 
rivalry and jealousy, we have had to feel our 
way. 

In fact, we have had more than mere ideas 
to contend with in the raising of our rooftree. 
In the first place, there was the land to be 
bought. A small but central location was of- 
fered us through the good offices of the mayor, 
on a corner of the main street, opposite a Cal- 
vary. But to acquire legal title to this land 
took six months, interspersed with trips to 
Amiens and a final dash to Compiegne. At 
last, however, we became landowners in the 
Somme. Meantime, we had been seeking for 
baraques.. The Prefecture promised them, the 
American Red Cross promised them; in fact, 
they shipped them to us from Bordeaux. But 
baraques are among those unconsidered trifles 
which become lost in transit these days. None 
of them arrived. So, with German prisoners 
ready to level the ground, and a French de- 
tail from the prison camp ready to guard 
them, we had still at the beginning of Septem- 



Community Planning 177 

ber no baraque in sight. How we finally got 
one, from Verdun, is an extraordinary story, 
and our baraque had already had an extra- 
ordinary history. Put up by the American 
Army at Verdun, it was first occupied by our 
Negro troops. On leaving the sector, the 
Americans donated it to the Vassar Unit, 
which came in March to do rehabilitation work 
there. Under them, the baraque was used as 
a canteen for returning refugees. They 
turned their work over to the French the first 
of September, and bequeathed this baraque to 
us. To demount it, to load it onto cars, and 
to convoy it in the person of a soldier detailed 
from the garrison of Verdun for the purpose, 
took a week. It took also the united coopera- 
tion of our Unit, the Vassar Unit, the Ameri- 
can Red Cross, the statiomnaster and the 
French Army. That achievement is in its way 
a monument to the golden opinion won by the 
Vassar Unit at Verdun. The Smith Unit 
hopes that under its guardianship this glory 
may never grow less! 

Our baraque, at length raised inch by inch 



178 Ladies of Grecourt 

under the unwinking eye of the Unit, presents 
now a changed appearance to the world. Its 
weathered sides have been painted a cheerful 
yellow, its windows, whose green flower boxes 
await the spring, are already bright with cre- 
tonne. Within, the gray of walls and ceiling 
is in contrast with scarlet painted beams and 
woodwork. Here, twice a week, the cinema 
draws its spectators, here the meetings for the 
launching of the campaign of public health 
were held, here the cure celebrated the Christ- 
mas mass, and here the village band, provided 
by the Unit with instruments and music to re- 
place those the Germans destroyed, is giving 
concerts which outdo the phonograph. 

A building designed to be a permanent ad- 
dition to the village supplements the Foyer 
proper. It is a composition bungalow, con- 
taining six rooms. Here are lodged the 
library and dispensary, and here will live the 
resident French workers, the director of the 
Foyer and the visiting nurses after we are 
gone. Our endowment will suffice for two 
years at least, and until the private societies 



^f^^'».■>, 



\ 



A BOY SCOUT 
170 



i8o Ladies of Grecourt 

leave this field of rehabilitation, our work will 
be carried on under the Secours d'Urgence, 
best known by its first post of relief, — the first, 
in fact, to be established in the Liberated Ke- 
gions, — at Roye. Mile. Javal, Secretary of this 
organization, has an international reputation 
for her work on behalf of crippled French 
soldiers. Mme. Gory, who has been from the 
beginning the presiding genius of the post at 
Koye, will become the Directrice of our Foyer, 
and of our activities. Already beloved 
throughout the region, gracious, efiicient, no 
more fortunate successor could have been 
found for the Smith College Unit, than Mme. 
Gory and the Secours d'Urgence. 

In this plant which we leave to them, will 
center another activity as far-reaching, we 
venture to hope, as the health work; that of 
the Boy Scouts. This was organized by us 
in the fall of 1919 under the leadership of Mr. 
R. R. Miller, formerly scout master in France 
with the Young Men's Christian Association. 
Each of our villages now has its troop. But 
it is the hope of the International Boy Scouts 



Community Planning i8i 

that these villages, thus organized on a non- 
sectarian basis, may form the nucleus of an 
organization which will embrace the entire 
devastated area, and eventually the whole of 
France. Back of these French boys, should 
they succeed, would stand the international 
body, and particularly those who have already 
achieved the most powerful organizations, 
their comrades, the Boy Scouts of England 
and of America. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE VILLAGE AND THE WAR 

AMID the innovations of the present, the 
provisional house built of wood — itself 
an anachronism in a land long deforested — the 
tractor in place of white-yoked oxen, the Mc- 
Cormick binder, the mechanical sower in place 
of "La Semeuse," it seems as if the life of the 
past had fallen to ruin as surely as the houses 
of brick and wattle and the sentinel churches 
above them. Is it then unworthy or impos- 
sible of preservation, that life of before the 
war? Is there anything that we as a com- 
munity center should do to preserve or restore 
it? At least we should understand what the 
social fabric was which the war destroyed. 

Primitive it certainly was, and simple, and 
yet progressing with the progress of the times. 
In fact the country as we know it dates only 
from the Revolution. Then it was that the 

182 



The Village and the War 183 

chateaux and the rich monasteries fell a prey- 
to their former vassals, and then that for the 
first time the peasant became the arbiter of 
his person and the owner of his lands. This 
stir of change is apparent in a quaint descrip- 
tion of our region contained in the "Histoire 
de la Ville de Roye" written by Gregoire 
d'Essigny, fils, and published at Noyon just a 
hundred years ago. "The inhabitants of our 
plains of Picardy," we read, "have nothing 
that distinguishes them from the usual French 
type; as to physique, the men are robust, the 
women, above all the young ones, have some- 
thing pleasing about them, — in fact, villages 
can even be recalled where they are pretty as 
a rule; the Picard patois sometimes borrows 
grace from their lips. 

"The French Revolution has brought 
among them a luxury which they never had be- 
fore. In olden times, one used to see them take 
from their wardrobes on the days of gi'eat 
fetes, the suit which they had for their mar- 
riage. It was usually of a grayish white stuff, 
cut very long skirted, with large pockets, and 



184 Ladies of Grecourt 

with buttons down the entire length, on the 
tabs of the pockets, and at the cuff. To-day 
our villagers desire their suits made in the lat- 
est mode, and of fine material; they add to 
them an elegant waistcoat, silver buckles at 
knee and at instep, and a French hat beauti- 
fully turned. (I am speaking of those who 
are in easy circumstances and of the costume 
which they wear on Sundays and fete-days.) 
The dresses of the women are not less af- 
fected: beautiful caps of muslin embroidered 
in wide folds, neckerchief of the same mate- 
rial, bodice and skirt of lovely chintz, with an 
apron of red India lawn or of black silk, a 
heavy cross and earrings of gold." 

Alas! our peasants of to-day dress more 
soberly, but they have lost their distinctive cos- 
tumes for the same reason ; they too follow the 
fashions of the city in their Sunday best. But 
if their dress has deteriorated, their housing 
has improved. Our villages of substantial 
brick, of massive gateways, of patterned 
gables, of red- tiled roofs, were unknown a hun- 
dred years ago. In 1818, "earth, wood and 



The Village and the War 185 

straw or thatch suffice almost always for the 
construction of the cottages of our plains. The 
door, quite often, serves also as window; the 
area is almost never paved; sometimes it is 
made of brick, frequently it is merely earth, 
and not level at that." 

Rustic fare was much the same as now. 
"When they can buy a pig, they fatten it and 
corn it; it is the chief part of their nourish- 
ment." Yet our author painstakingly notes 
that Picardy is perhaps the province of France 
where the most bread is eaten. "It is beautiful 
there, good and abundant. Their dinner and 
their supper," he continues, "consist princi- 
pally of vegetables. Peas, string beans, kid- 
ney beans, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, are 
what they live on ordinarily. They eat a deal 
of soup, which is made with the vegetables and 
the pork; this diet is sensible and gives them 
strength. Our villagers drank formerly 
water, cider or beer. The relaxation of man- 
ners since the Revolution has multiphed in the 
country the number of those houses where a 
man comes to lose his powers through the 



1 86 Ladies of Grecourt 

abuse of wine, and often to ruin at the same 
time his health and his purse." 

For unknown centuries, the farmers have 
grouped themselves in villages, isolated farms, 
except manorial estates, being rare. These 
villages in Picardy are very compact, for the 
reasons that land is valuable, and that it is 
parceled out to successive descendants. A 
contemporary village of the plains, then, re- 
calls no such picture of cottages embowered in 
orchards, or half hidden by hedges, as one may 
see in more hilly or less broadly cultivated 
parts of France. It stetches often along an 
old Roman road, and presents fiush with the 
street, doorsteps or shallow gardens, high 
walls, cavernous gates, and the sloping roofs 
of enormous granges where, not so many years 
ago, the harvest of wheat was threshed as well 
as stored. The gate opens into a square court, 
which is usually the barnyard. Within, each 
farmer is master of an integral domain. 

The village church, in old times the nucleus 
of the village, more often than not forms an ob- 
struction to the comparatively modern streets. 



The Village and the War 187 

In such a village, "at the entrance to the 
church, surrounded by a wall, is found the an- 




A TOWERED DOVE-COTE— BUVERCHY 



cient cemetery, where sleep their last sleep 
more than tv^elve generations of ancestors. 



i88 Ladies of Grecourt 

. . . Facing the square, one admires the splen- 
did schoolhouse. On the right of the entrance 
is found the lodging of the instructor, on the 
left, that of the instructress. The two classes 
[boys and girls], as indicated by the separate 
lodgings, are separated by a wall. A beauti- 
ful great garden, well planted, completes this 
magnificent property. 

"On the first floor, giving on a balcony, is 
the office of the mayor. There is located also 
a town library containing serious works. It 
is there that the municipal council meets for its 
important deliberations, the bureau of chari- 
ties, the tax-collector on the day appointed, 
the mutual benefit society, etc. 

"At the opposite end of the square is seen 
the attractive structure for the fire brigade; 
in the wings of this, two pretty chambers for 
poor travelers in search of free lodgings. 

"Near the church . . . one remarks a su- 
perb square planted along its edges with great 
lindens beneath which are placed at regular 
intervals benches for their tired admirers."* 

*E. Maurisse: Monographic Illustr6e de Mons-en-Chaussee. 



The Village and the War 189 

Here on Sunday afternoons, the village bands 
were wont to play. Here was held each month 
the village fair, and here each year on the fete 
days of the village saint, the booths of petty 
merchants spread hke mushrooms, and the 
strains of the merry-go-round made discord 
with the violins that called to the village dance. 
One of our villages, Esmery-Hallon, was 
the possessor of a merry-go-round which not 
only served its own fetes, but toured the fetes 
of the countryside. It is to be doubted, how- 
ever, if any of these were as recherche as Es- 
mery's own, held in July for three days in 
honor of St. Vaneng. This saint of the sev- 
enth century was the founder of a monastery 
in Normandy whence the incursions of the 
Northmen drove the monks. They brought 
the relics of their saint to Esmery. To this 
day, after many vicissitudes, they repose there 
in the little gymnastic hall of the village now 
used as a church. In this same hall, with frag- 
ments of old wood carving ariid mutilated stat- 
ues, is another relic of medieval Mfe, the crim- 
son banner of St. Sebastian, patron of arch- 



190 Ladies of Grecourt 

ery. Nor is it inappropriate tiiat the church 
should have found shelter in the gymnasium, 
nor that the sole remaining banner of the 
Company of Archers of Esmery-Hallon 
should float above the relics of St. Vaneng. 
In this most catholic Picardy, sports are un- 
der the patronage of the Church, from the 
Company of Archers with its five hundred 
years of history behind it, to the gymnastic 
society "La Valhante" founded by a schoolboy 
of the village for his former playmates under 
the patronage of M. le Cure in 1911. 

In the Annuaire-Gineral du Departement 
de la Somme of 1913, which gives the resources 
of each commune, Esmery-Hallon is thus 
listed: Esmery-Hallon, 903 inhabitants, can- 
ton of Ham, distant 6 kilometers; postofSce 
and railroad at Ham; telegraph, telephone; 
Fete patronale, the third Sunday of July; an- 
nual fair, September 22. Then follows the 
list of dignitaries: the mayor, the municipal 
councilors, the secretary, the cure, the four 
teachers, the tax collector, the to^vn crier, the 
Company of Po7npierSj or volunteer fire bri- 



The Village and the War 191 

gade, and the Company of Archers, Horn- 
bleux could add to this list another ancient 
company, her fanfare, or village band. 

It was Charles the Seventh who, in 1448, 
first organized the companies of archers as a 
branch of his army. Their meets were for 
the yeoman what the tourneys were for the 
knights. In order to be eligible, then as now, 
the candidate for the very noble and high sport 
of archery must be of good life and honest 
conversation. Then, every parish of fifty 
hearths throughout France was bound to fur- 
nish such a man for the King's army. To-day, 
the sport is confined to Northern France, where 
in 1914, there were ten thousand archers still 
wielding the bow. The companies in our vil- 
lages, of which there are three, have thirty 
members each. Near the cemetery, usually, 
is the jardin au tir, or shooting ground, where 
the approved target is a paraquet or nightin- 
gale carved in wood. Here on Sunday after- 
noons practice the members of the company, 
and here are held meets between villages, or 
if the commune is v/ealthy and important 



192 Ladies of Grecourt 

enough, a yearly meet for all the companies 
of the Federation, called the Bouquet Pro- 
vincial. At this event, a notable of the de- 
partment serves as President of Honor, and 
Monseigneur the Bishop assists at the cere- 
mony. Many prizes are distributed, and he 
who wins the grand prize is the King of the 
Archers for the ensuing year. 

In Esmery, in Hombleux, and in Brouchy 
are to be found to-day the presidents of these 
companies of archers. But alas ! the Germans 
have destroyed every bow and arrow ; the uni- 
forms, the banners, the targets, all are lost. 
The secretary at Esmery shows with pride a 
proclamation of a meet in the Oise in 1908, 
which he had saved among his buried treas- 
ures. "The companies shall arrive," begins 
this proclamation, "in good order, drum beat- 
ing and banners deployed." It was all he had 
left of the annals of his company. A like de- 
struction befell the musical instruments, which 
the Germans requisitioned and melted up, so 
that to the silence of the village bells, those 
loquacious chroniclers of village lilPe, has been 



The Village and the War 193 

added the silence of the bands, Offoy, Brou- 
chy and Hombleux had such organizations, 
averaging, like the companies of archers, 
thirty members each. They were encouraged 
by the grands cultivateurs who subscribed an 
amount sufficient to cover the cost of instru- 
ments. Hombleux also had a choral society 
of boys and girls, trained by her gifted and 
public spirited cure. Nor must it be thought 
that those villages not having bands or archery 
meets of their own were necessarily less pro- 
gressive. Douilly, Sancourt, Muille-Villette, 
appertained in culture to Ham, with its Com- 
pany of Archers, its theater and its philhar- 
monic. The same was true of our villages 
neighboring Nesle. 

Economically, our villages were well off be- 
fore the war. The wheat of a hundred years 
ago had not yet yielded first place to the sugar 
beet ; the fertility of the land was unimpaired. 
One main line railroad, one of narrow gauge 
running through the market gardens, and two 
canals supplied transportation through Ami- 
ens, Noyon and St. Quentin to more distant 



194 Ladies of Grecourt 

centers. The sugar beet had brought in three 
distilleries and one refinery; at Esmery were a 
brewery and a pottery, and at Offoy a flour 
mill of the fii'st class. There was a telegraph 
or a telephone in five of the villages, and elec- 
tric lighting in an equal number radiating 
from Ham. Almost every one, everywhere, 
owned some land, if only a garden. Canisy, 
Offoy and Eppeville grew opulent on their 
market produce; of larger farms there were 
about a hundred and fifty. One of these, that 
of Lannoy, employed three hundred hands. 
As the teacher of Sancourt writes of his own 
commune: "Favored by a fertile soil, and pro- 
gi^ess aiding them, the population, very hard 
working, are always attached to the soil, and 
enriched hj it. In 1914, thanks to the installa- 
tion of electricity, almost every house had its 
current, certain farms used electric power, the 
streets themselves were lighted. In a word, 
this little commune was heading more and 
more toward progress, toward good fortune, 
man making use of the gifts of science, when 



The Village and the War 195 

unhappily there broke out this horrible catas- 
trophe, the war." 

And yet, so tenacious here are the customs 
of the ancestors, that one could perhaps find 
no better description of home life on the small 
farm than that given in the history of Roye 
already quoted: "The cultivation of the land 
is the principal occupation of the inhabitants 
of our countryside. The fields are fertile. 
Every one toils. The men work, sov/, harvest, 
stack, thresh and sell the grain; the v/omen 
clear the fields of harmful weeds. They may 
be seen, any day in summer, carrying on their 
backs a load of these plants which they give to 
the cattle. 

"In the good season, the air echoes continu- 
ally with the shrill songs of these gatherers of 
herbs ; they set their voices at the highest pitch, 
and yet these voices are not always without 
some harmony. They sing the old tales or 
Picard ballads, charmingly naive. . . . 

"In the winter, when the earth is stripped 
of its verdure, and when one can no longer 



196 Ladies of Grecourt 

gather greens, ... in the winter evenings, 
called watches, when the women of Picardy 
spin the flax, there is presented a spectacle 
truly picturesque. It is cold; the days are 
short; the night begins to fall; several families 
gather together in a room or in a cellar. There 
can be seen maidens, each with her wheel be- 
fore her, her lover leaning on the back of her 
chair. In time to the turning wheel, each per- 
son narrates what he knows ; the stories which 
pass fromi father to son are recounted. All 
eyes are fixed on the narrator and reflect the 
greatest interest. Often, to make a diversion, 
the sharp voices of the young villagers strike 
up together an old tune, or sing a carol. 

"If among the men present at this gather- 
ing, there chance to be some soldier on leave, 
you will hear him speak in pompous terms 
of the campaigns which he has made ; you will 
see him too trace in chalk the camps upon the 
waUs." 

One might add to this idyll, the twentieth- 
century picture drawn by M. I'Abbe Maurisse 
of his parishioners in a village only a few miles 



The Village and the War 197 

from ours: "This locality is inhabited by a sub- 
stantial race of cultivators and their farm 
hands who have not degenerated in the least 
from their ancestors. Look at these good and 
energetic masters; look also at these servants 
driving their heavy carts, or seated upon their 
harvesters like kings upon their throne, or wa- 
tering their horses ; see these hands spread the 
f ertihzer, hoe the poppies and the sugar beets ; 
on Sunday and above all on fete days, see them 
at church, or in the afternoon at tennis, and 
in the evening at the cabaret. They converse, 
and the discourse is rude, the phrasing 
brusque, the word not at all shy of the thing, 
the buoyant gayety a little gallic, the repartee 
modest, and the invective energetic, — behold 
such are our rustics. . . . They have, none the 
less, imprinted on their features, courage and 
kindness. Has it not been said that under the 
hat of a peasant is often found the counsel of 
a prince?"* 

*E. Maurisse: Monographic Illustr^e de Mons-en-Chauss6e. 



THE TILLAGE AND THE FUTURE 

EVEN more important for us as agents 
of rehabilitation is it to understand the 
methods used to destroy, and the effect of the 
destruction, of this social life of Northern 
France, What of the morale? In what tem- 
per do the thrice-tried refugees face the reali- 
ties of reconstruction, and how will it mold 
their future? If we know that, we shall know 
how to continue for their good the influence 
of the "new little Smith College" we sent in 
1917 to the Somme. 

From the door of his ruined home, the 
teacher of Sancourt looked across to the ruined 
church. A camionette belonging to the Unit 
was drawn up in the irregular little square. 
He had just brought out a basketful of books 
from the tiny school baraque, to be exchanged, 
and stood a minute talking. "Yes," he was 

198 



Ui^JiA^AjOL^ ^^,^^^^ *. 



y;i;^. ^. .' H. •-.;, Mr ' „^.g, ^■^.'..r.i.j 



,»vfl'>».v'.»i..A.,ii'...-..-.fgj::a;d 



"THE RUINED CHURCH' 



199 



200 Ladies of Grecourt 

saying, "our church was built in the thirteenth 
century. The Germans took away the bells 
in February, 1917. Before that, they used to 
ring for German victories. No, Sancourt has 
not suffered so much, only six of her soldiers 
killed, and property destroyed. But it is mor- 
ally that we have endured the greatest losses: 
the pealing of those bells, the privation of no 
news from our families, from our soldiers, the 
humiliations which the enemy inflicted, re- 
peated summons, forced labor, fines, confisca- 
tion of crops, carrying away of civihans as 
prisoners, and to crown all, the burning of our 
village and all that it contained." 

From the Baron de Thezy of Lannoy and 
Breuil, from Hombleux and Buverchy, from 
all our villages one hears the same estimate of 
the common loss. It was the soul of the com- 
munity, as well as its body, that the Germans 
had aimed to destroy. In Hombleux, after 
recounting their many hardships, even to the 
taking of their cure as a hostage, the most 
poignant lament is for the carillon of the 
church, "poor emigres." "Sound, Anne, 



The Village and the Future 201 

Marie, Pelagic," writes the cure's sister, call- 
ing the bells by their baptismal names, "sound 
the last note for all those whom thou hast gath- 
ered in this way to baptism, and conducted to 
the grave. Sound for all the times that thou 
hast sung and for all the hopes that thou hast 
blessed!" 

The Mayor of Buverchy says: "The hamlet 
of Buverchy, the ancient site of the city of 
Caletot, will rise anew . . . but it is not in it 
to recover its old time habits of gayety, to 
fete its Patron at Assumption in its chapel of 
Notre Dame de Lourdes, to-day entirely de- 
molished amid its graves and tombs overthrown 
by shells." 

This same Mayor of Buverchy was himself 
a hostage in the north of France and in Bel- 
gium. His wife, who became mayor in his 
place, contrasted one day the flight of the vil- 
lage in 1917 and in 1918. "In 1917, one had 
more, one was taken away in a wagon and 
could save a little linen, not much, but some 
pieces of good linen, and I my husband's rec- 
ords. I would rather have lost everything of 



202 Ladies of Grecourt 

my own than those papers. But in 1918, — 
fancy, — one got away on foot. There were 
those who had sons, or a horse, but I had only 
my daughter of thirteen. I started with her 
and a wheelbarrow. On it were the town 
records. 

"You remember M. ?" (a suspected spy, 

who had disputed the office of mayor with 
her) . ''He had three horses of his own and be- 
sides that the horse and wagon allotted to the 
village. (He had not been home two days 
before he got that away from me. ) He saved 
everything, as in 1914, all his bedding, his mat- 
tresses, his linen, his furniture. And never a 
place for any of us. I went to him to ask if 
I could put the town records in the cart, the 
cart, mind you, that belonged to all the com- 
mune. 'Madame,' he said, 'what would you? 
The cart is full; save them yourself!' I have 
told this to several people, and they told me to 
write to M. le Prefet, — but I am only a coun- 
try woman, I have not written. 

"So, I put the papers on the wheelbarrow, 
and asked the English soldiers along the road 



The Village and the Future 203 

to help me. But all the lorries were loaded, — 
they could not help, I walked to Rosieres; 
at Rosieres I turned toward Guillancourt. 
Every one said, 'Trains no longer running; 
turn back.' I met M. le Sous-prefet; he said 
the same, 'Turn back.' I turned, I passed 
through I know not what towns and villages; 
my legs became so swollen I could hardly 
travel. I abandoned the wheelbarrow. Oh, 
Mesdemoiselles, I slept at the station in 
Amiens one night in the height of the bom- 
bardment; I slept in other stations; I walked 
eight days. At the end of that time, I slept 
a whole day without waking, and when a kind 
woman told me there was a bed, and would I 
not like to lie in that, I did not understand her. 
"In the Interior, what did I do? I worked 
in a cotton factory, for the army. One must 
live. Not one gift did I ever have from any 
one, not a chemise, not so much as a pin. An 
ungenerous people, who do not understand! 
But they think they work hard at their bit of 
a garden, or vineyard. They have not the 
heavy labor all the year round of the North. 



204 Ladies of Grecourt 

The North, Mesdemoiselles, is the most inter- 
esting part of all France. I have come to 
travel during the war, and I see it. It has in 
its five departments the riches of all the rest 
of France together. But we here have not 
the easy life they have. One crop succeeds 
another. You see that the harvest is now fin- 
ished. Next it will be potatoes and after them 
the beets. Oh, the beets ! the refineries at Moy- 
encourt, at Hombleux, at Ercheu, at Ham! 
It is a labor to tire both man and beast, that 
culture. Then too, there is the winter sowing; 
always the toil and never the time to take a 
walk for pleasure or see the world! 

"Yet, we were well fixed here in Buverchy, 
with the Canal du Nord carrying coal from the 
mines to Paris, and the railroad from Noyon 
to Nesle." 

A neighbor interrupted for some errand. 
"She too was taken prisoner," resumed Mme. 
Carpentier, "with her daughter. Yet never a 
day did they work. Why? Simply because 
the Germans waged a second war in taking the 
civilians capable of work away from France. 



The Village and the Future 205 

I used to tell them sometimes — three and a 
half years they were here — : 'War is a conflict 
between soldiers. Ours are at the front to 
fight you. But we, the civilians in the rear, 
all we ask is to cultivate our fields and remain 
in our homes; we are no part of the war.' 

"But they considered us just that. They 
set us to work in corvees. And while the har- 
vesters got pay — two and a half francs here 
and five at Lannoy — my husband, being 
mayor, got not a sou. It was always, night 
and day, knock, knock on the door. 'M. le 
Maire?' 'Make this list.' 'Give me this infor- 
mation.' 'Post this order.' The worst was, 
one never knew what to expect. One woke in 
the morning with the thought, 'Oh, that this 
day was over !' One went to bed at night won- 
dering, 'What will happen next?' Young 
girls routed out at three o'clock in the morn- 
ing to cut willows in the marshes, standing in 
the water up to their knees all day long ; requi- 
sition this, requisition that, fines, regulation 
of crops, — that is not war. 

"Then, too, we had our own refugees to har- 




WILLOWS !N THE MARSHES' 



206 



The Village and the Future 207 

bor, and no place to put them, with soldiers 
billeted everywhere. And not having bread — 
the Germans never would give us bread, — and 
had it not been for the Spanish- American 
Commission* what would have become of us? 
— I myself went out and showed them my own 
garden of beautiful potatoes, and told them it 
was free to every one. 

"Oh, those days! And then, one night, 
knock, knock; and the prisoners must be col- 
lected then, in the middle of the night, and 
sent, one knew not where. . . . One can re- 
count, one can recount, but only those who 
have passed through it understand!" 

Mme. Carpentier spoke for the civilian refu- 
gees, those sheep before the storm, three times 
driven from their homes. In August, 1914, 
we see them thus fleeing the approach of the 
enemy, leaving their cattle in the fields, their 
harvests in the bams, taking the road with 
thousands like them, farther, always farther, 
toward the south. We see them, left behind 
by the retreat of the English and the French, 

*The Belgian Relief Commission. 



2o8 Ladies of Grecourt 

bewildered, halted by the advancing enemy, 
and finally turning north again through the 
German lines. Yv^e see them, in 1916, huddled 
in the mud and rain, in the courtyard of the 
Chateau of Ham — that dungeon which looked 
down on the betrayal of Jeanne d'Arc — await- 
ing the first shipment of civilian prisoners to 
Germany. We see them in 1917 suffering a 
wholesale deportation — from Esraery-Hallon 
alone went on that winter night 420 persons — 
and in March the remnant driven from their 
burning homes. We see them again a year 
later, in the saddest, most hopeless of exiles, 
dispersed family from family among strangers 
none too eager to receive them in the interior. 
But what of the civilian prisoners them- 
selves? From our villages, 1,800 of these 
were taken. Some, like the mayor of Buver- 
chy, spent their days in Belgium or in North- 
ern France, a manufacturing country, with- 
out tilled gardens. They ate fodder beets, 
leaves, potato tops, anything to keep alive, 
and many died. Others were detailed to the 
German army itself, and made trenches, em- 



The Village and the Future 209 

placements, or roads for the artillery. They 
came back, many of them, with the German 
army, to their own villages in the spring of 
1918. Twenty-five thus saw the ruins of Hom- 
bleux, from a German prison camp and 
worked in her streets. One boy of Canisy was 
just across the river in Ham, and watched the 
bombardment of his village while he laid tracks 
for the guns. Meantime, his mother, his lame 
father and his sisters, together with thirty of 
his neighbors, were starving for three days in 
the cellars there, and were then sent north by 
the victors, prisoners too. 

Refugees, civilian prisoners, there is still 
one other class of exiles to chronicle, the sol- 
diers with the colors. Six hundred of them 
marched away to the sound of the drum and 
the ringing of bells in the summer of 1914. 
One hundred and fifty fell for France on the 
field of honor and ten died in German prison 
camps. For three and a half years, these men 
fought without news of their families ; the ma- 
jority of them never saw kith or kin until aftej* 
the Armistice. Ask any one of them now where 



210 Ladies of Grecourt 

he fought, and he will say simply, "Every- 
where." But through all their campaigns, on 
the Marne, in Champagne, along the Yser, in 
the Somme itself, there sounds like a thunder, 
Verdun. Yes, our men were there ; thirty- two 
months, said one, in the artillery, and another 
decorated for bravery at the recapture of 
Fort Vaux. Yes, as Mme. Carpentier said: 
One can recount, one can recount, but only 
one who has been on the hills of that Golgotha, 
that Place of Skulls and of Calvaries unnum- 
bered, can understand. 

How did the families of this dispersion find 
one another, and why did they come back? In 
some cases through the records of the refugee 
bureaus at the gateways of the frontiers, in 
some by watching day after day at crossroads, 
in some by chance, in some by the cooperation 
of German captors, the scattered families as- 
sembled. But not all. Our villages mourn 
one hundred dead during the evacuations, and 
fifty who have disappeared. 

They came back by instinct, by habit, 
to their plains. "Ah, the Somme! the love of 



The Village and the Future 211 

the morsel of soil one possesses, where one has 
always lived, that is the most tenacious thing 
in these poor, dislodged souls. Even when 
they know that their home no longer exists, 
that of their village there remains nothing but 
a hideous upheaval, they still hope to collect 
some of the fragments, to reconstruct in better 
fashion ; in fine, to recover their land where bit 
by bit, they will piece together again the mem- 
ories which are the fragments of their lives."* 

And with the help of the men, of German 
prisoners — of whom last summer there were 
forty-odd thousand working in the Somme — 
they are rebuilding the ruins, reestablishing 
the economic life. A month after the Armis- 
tice, sixty souls were already living in our vil- 
lages. As new arrivals met in the streets, they 
kissed one another with the salutation, "Bon 
Courage!" That was in the winter, in the first 
shock of the devastation. But the words echo 
down all the months. 

Courage ! Said the oldest inhabitant of San- 
court, a man of over eighty, last summer: "I 

* Rene Benjamin: Les Rapatries, p, 57. 



212 Ladies of Grecourt 

wish I were younger, perhaps forty, so that 
I could take part in this rebuilding of the 




>■)■ 







h. 




',S.X 



X 



"I W!SH ! WERE YOUNGER" 



land, and see it done. But to each his turn." 
Said the Prefet of the Department in ad- 



The Village and the Future 213 

dressing a congress of the mayors of all the 
communes, about that same date: "Gentlemen, 
take courage, have patience. . , . Firmness of 
purpose and tenacity of action are the virtues 
which the sons of Picardy should have from 
their inherited soil, which gives not up its se- 
crets save to those who wrest them away with 
desperate toil. 

"Your clear valleys shall regain the calm 
and the freshness of other days; your plains, 
appeased, liberated, shall take pride in their 
riches, and your houses, rejuvenated, shall 
shelter the laughter of your children, of whom 
your sufferings will have been the ransom. 

"And on that day there shall remain no 
other trace of the passing of war through the 
land of Picardy than the honor, the imperish- 
able honor, of having paid by its unmerited 
wounds, the price of the salvation of France." 

That day is far in the future. But among 
the ruins, the tapestry of life is being rewoven 
to-day in colors as lovely as those that adorned 
once in this same Picardy, the Field of the 
Cloth of Gold. It is a hot day in summer ; the 



214 Ladies of Grecourt 

light is strong on the naked walls of Ham; 
dust powders the trees that still cast a shade 
along the esplanade by the canal; dust swirls 
from the clanging engines that carry away the 
debris. But suddenly, through the clangor, 
one is aware of laughter, of a cadence hummed, 
and of feet keeping time to it. A bridal pro- 
cession is coming down the street! Behold 
the groom in soldier blue, and the bride in her 
fair white veil ; behold the troupe that marches 
happily behind them, behold youth and happi- 
ness and love reborn. 

Another pageant, on another day, a windy 
Sunday in September, v>dnds through these 
same streets. It is the children of a dozen 
communes, marching to their confirmation, 
the girls in bridal veils, the boys crowned with 
white chaplets, a hundred and sixty of them. 
Our children are there, our villagers are there, 
banking in the flowing stream with somber 
borders of black; for, as M. le Cure says, "We 
all bear in our heart, is it not true? a gaping 
wound from the war." On up the street winds 
the procession, singing shrilly, following the 



The Village and the Future 215 

one splash of gorgeous color, the crimson- 
belled miter of the Bishop of Amiens. To the 
ruined church of Notre Dame they march, 



,! ,t^ 






^s^Vr 









'FOLLOWING THE BiSHOP OF AMIENS" 



fi.^h'U, 



and up the steps. The Bishop paused and 
turned to the crowd in the street. His jeweled 
crozier towered above the golden miter, a gold 
embroidered stole flanked his rich vestments, 
his face was worthy of its splendid setting. 



2i6 Ladies of Grecourt 

He spoke, quite simply, of the usage of pa- 
tience, of toil, of regularity, of law. He en- 
tered, and the crowd entered after him. Over- 
head was the vaulted sky, for organ, the wind 
and the rain. But in the choir, like a panel 
of Bellini, sat in state the Bishop, and his 
canon in ermine, and M. le Cure, gray-haired> 
his black cap on his knee. 



CHAPTER XV 

"the fruit of the tree of war" 

rriHERE are many ways of measuring 
-"- what the Smith College Relief Unit in 
the Somme has accomplished. There is the 
way of statistics, of the number of dollars 
raised and expended, of the personnel engaged 
throughout two years and a half upon civilian 
relief, of the number and kinds of articles dis- 
tributed during that time. Such compilations 
may be found in treasurers' reports, or in 
monthly statements. There is the way of au- 
dits, official endorsements, citations. These also 
are in the Unit archives and have already be- 
come a heritage to the College. But there is 
another way in which to test the success of the 
Smith College Unit. Mrs. Harriet Boyd 
Hawes, in her message to the alumnae before 
she sailed, said: 

"To make the French glad we came, that 

217 



2i8 Ladies of Grecourt 

is what we must work for. The most efficient 
charity organization is a failure if it cannot 
qualify by this test. And when people tell me 
they do not approve of our going as a unit, 
since they can see good only in centralized ef- 
fort, I think, 'Ask the French'; ask them 
whether they prefer to be helped by a central 
bureau, or whether they like the personal 
touch of friends living with them, learning 
first-hand their needs, doctoring their ailments, 
sharing with them and making their heroism 
known to a world eager to show homage to it 
in gifts. Ask the French, and we of the Smith 
Unit will accept their decision." 

It needs only one testimony of many to 
prove the answer, that of M. Lemaire, Mayor 
of Grecourt. Three years a prisoner, having 
been taken to Belgium as hostage for his vil- 
lage, he heard when he came back through 
Amiens in 1918, that he need have had no anx- 
iety about his family, "for," said the official in 
charge of refugee records, "a committee of 
Dames Americaines has been looking out for 
them." This summer, M. Lemaire's eldest 



'The Fruit of the Tree of War" 219 

daughter, Giselle, made her first communion. 
Her father and mother invited the Unit to 
coffee after the service. The family are living 
in two patched-up shacks and a semi-cylindri- 
cal Nissen hut in the courtyard of their old 
farm. In the hut, they had set a table, where 
places were laid for them and for us. Giselle, 
looking like some medieval saint, her eyes 
hollowed with fasting, sat at the head, her 
father at the foot. Her mother, her aunt, her 
little sister, and an apple-cheeked old lady in 
a white cap, "who was the first person to dress 
Giselle at her birth," and we, completed the 
circle. White wine, four different sorts of 
small cakes, a baked custard, and coffee com- 
memorated what M. Lemaire, referring to his 
own communion, called "the happiest day of 
my life," His greatest fear during his years 
of exile had been lest he should not be released 
in time to see Giselle's. And when at last, 
with healths and congratulations, the party 
was over, he rose and made a little speech, ex- 
plaining that we had been asked because they 
considered us their family for all we had done 



220 Ladies of Grecourt 

for Grecourt. "We only wish," he said, "that 
we might better express our gratitude." 

But it is we as a Unit, we as representatives 
of Smith College, who should with more rea- 
son express our gratitude for what Grecourt 
has done for us. In that imponderable debt, 
there need figure no lack in transportation, no 
non-existence of supplies, no lagging of mate- 
rial fact behind the ideal plan. The only limi- 
tations to that high experience were the limits 
of comprehension, of endeavor, of fellowship, 
set bj^ our own personalities. Such failures, 
our College, eager to honor us, will fortunately 
overlook. There remains to us as individuals 
and as a Unit, a priceless memory of spiritual 
horizons limitless as the sky of stars and moon 
and sunsets above our spacious plains. 

Would that we, who were sent by you "for 
a dream's sake," O Alma Mater, might bring 
you back from those fields of glory, a tithe of 
what is your own! And yet, here again, who 
shall measure for the College the force of this 
our tradition of the Great War? In 1917, 
Dean Comstock bade the Unit the gracious 



"The Fruit of the Tree of War" 221 

Godspeed: "In thinking of the various influ- 
ences which will affect the tone of our next 
college year, I can find none upon which we 
can rely more surely for an inspiration to 
steady, cheerful work, to right feeling, to 
sane, intelligent thinking than the unseen 
presence of the members of our Unit. Never 
in their busiest undergraduate days, never in 
their later successes, will they have been more 
truly and vitally and helpfully present in 
Northampton than during their days in 
France." 

It was through its sponsor, the Alumnae 
Association, that the Unit became a nucleus, 
behind which stood Smith College, "a Unit 
too." The home organization in its early days 
was very simple. The first circular sent to 
the alumnae on behalf of the Unit mentions 
as officers only the Director of the Unit and 
the Secretary and Treasurer. It was not un- 
til Commencement, 1917, that the alumnae 
body formally assumed the responsibility of 
the Unit, and appointed a Committee of six 
members of which Mrs. Helen Rand Thayer 



222 Ladies of Grecourt 

was chairman. In addition to the Committee, 
there was a shipping agent, also an alumna, 
in New York, and a publicity department 
ready made in the Alumnae Secretary and the 

AlumncB Quarterly in Horthampton. 
Throughout the United States, the forty-two 
Smith Clubs, linking from coast to coast, be- 
came centers in their turn of publicity, and 
furnished the sinews of war. Loyal alumnse 
of Japan and the Philippines were eager to 
contribute. In these clubs, thousands of gar- 
ments were made and stockings knitted, first 
for the Unit, and later for the pooled supplies 
of the Red Cross, 

On the other side of the ocean, in Paris, the 
central Committee had also its delegated com- 
mittee, of which Mrs. Harriet Bliss Ford was 
the chairman, so that the Unit was not cut off 
from its source of inspiration and of authority. 
It shared the heavy responsibilities of decision, 
and benefited by the counsel of one peculiarly 
fitted, by her position in the American Red 
Cross, her knowledge of French policies, and 



"The Fruit of the Tree of War" 223 

her standing with the alumnae at home, to 
advise. 

In the College itself, the undergraduates 
were quickly drawn into the circle of fellow- 
ship. In October, 1917, the Committee or- 
ganized the first, but by no means the last, 
rally for the Unit. The undergraduates ex- 
pressed their gratitude by an immediate 
pledge of $4,641. That refreshing pamphlet, 
"War Activities of Smith College," issued by 
the Student War Board in June, 1919, nar- 
rates that "many a Freshman at Christmas 
time displayed a ringless finger and told a 
bewildered family that 'we sent the money 
instead to the Unit,' " and that "on November 
7, 1917, we proudly hung from College Hall 
a service flag for the Unit, containing seven- 
teen stars." 

From that time until June, 1918, the war 
activities of the College, centering about the 
S. C. R. U., as the Smith College ReHef Unit 
is fondly nicknamed, grew. The original 
Committee expanded into a War Service 



22. 



Ladies of Grecourt 



Board of thirteen members and appropriate 
sub-commrttees. Through the Smith Clubs, 
an organized drive for money apportioned by 
quota, was successfully carried out, not only 
for the original Unit, but for the Smith Col- 
lege Canteen Unit, the Smith College Refugee 










MENHIR, EPPEVILLE 



Unit, and the Smith College Near East Unit. 
The service flag blazoned in all two hundred 
and ninety-six names. 

For the patriotism of the College overflowed 
the bounds of its own special Units and Com- 
mittees. From the days when its alumnae 
founded the College Settlement in New York 



"The Fruit of the Tree of War" 225 

until now, Smith has stirred with a pioneer 
spirit for social service. And the Unit, in the 
eyes of its founders, was never conceived as an 
end in itself. Before it was even indorsed by 
the alumnae, it had sent out two representa- 
tives "to present the plan to other women's 
colleges." "We hope," states the first circular, 
"that other women's colleges will form sim- 
ilar units and that eventually a service will 
grow up as useful in its way as the American 
Ambulance Service, as creditable to our coun- 
try and as valuable in tradition to our col- 
leges." 

Out of this hope emerged two movements, 
the Association of Intercollegiate Alumnae 
closely affiliated with the War Service Board 
of Smith, which recommended two hundred 
and thirteen college graduates for posts with 
the American Red Cross, and the Young 
Men's Christian Association; and the score of 
units from women's colleges which went to 
France under the American Bed Cross. 
Among those units with which Smith College 
was privileged to advise were the Barnard 



226 Ladies of Grecourt 

Unit, the Vassar Unit, the Goucher College 
Unit, the Leland Stanford Unit, and the Wel- 
lesley Unit. It is true that the exigencies of 
war dispersed the personnel of these units 
abroad until after the Armistice. But they 
were fulcrums of enthusiasm and of support 
in each of their several colleges, and as such 
of value not only to the colleges but to the 
Red Cross which approved them. 

After the Armistice, three of the Units be- 
gan, where we too began over again, the re- 
habilitation of allotted territories under the 
French Government, independent of the 
American Red Cross. In point of time, we 
were again the pioneers. But we were closely 
followed by the Barnard Unit of five mem- 
bers, which went as a direct representative of 
the Ministry of the Liberated Regions, to 
Marcoing and its group of destroyed villages 
about Cambrai on the Hindenburg Line. The 
third was the Vassar Unit, which merged itself 
with a French committee charged with the care 
of the returning refugees of Verdun. The 
fourth and youngest was the Wellesley Unit 






''7 




THE PET MAGPIE 
227 



228 Ladies of Grecourt 

at Lucy-en-Bocage, on the hills above 
Chateau-Thierry, Hill 204 and Vaux. 

In Esmery-Hallon there is a garden where 
in the summers before the war five hundred 
roses bloomed. Of the house, formerly em- 
bowered in vines, only jagged walls and the 
frames of windows and doors remain. But 
the window ledges are set with brass shell 
cases, polished and filled with flowering plants, 
and the garden, seen through the apertures, 
glows with scent and color. They are not 
roses, those gorgeous flowers, but stately 
dahlias and delicate petunias. The rose 
bushes, newly grafted, will bloom in years to 
come a thousand fold. But they will share 
the glory of that garden with those later com- 
ers, whose seeds the war has wafted thither 
with returning refugees from the gardens of 
Carcassonne. 

Again, for the seed which we have scat- 
tered, how shall one calculate the harvest? A 
few months, and the Units themselves will be 
nothing but names in the little communities 
they have lived among. In one way or an- 



"The Fruit of the Tree of War" 229 

other, their work will be given over to those 
who can best carry it on, the French. But 
each community assures us that those names 
will be handed down to future generations, to 
be to them also an heirloom and a tradition. 
Such, no less than destruction, are the imper- 
ishable fruits of the Tree of War, 

This we know, that whatever traditions 
gather about the Smith College Relief Unit, 
here or there, they will be derived from the 
spiritual heritage bequeathed by Sophia Smith 
to the College of which it is an offshoot. As 
her adviser, John M. Green, interpreted her 
trust, *'It was usefulness, happinesss and 
honor that the College was to furnish to 
women." It was to be "a developing instru- 
ment designed to enable women more effec- 
tively and freely to assume their share in the 
decisive affairs of an ever-changing world." 



APPENDIX 



ENGLAND 



BELGIUM 



nOSELLE R. 




SPAIN 



MAP SHOWING DEVASTATED AREA. THE BLACK LINE INDICATEa 

LIMIT OF GERMAN ADVANCE 



232 



APPENDIX 

PERSONNEL OF THE SMITH COLLEGE RELIEF UNIT 
1917-1920 

Directors: 

Harriet Boyd Hawes 
Alice Weld Tallant 
Hannah Dunlop Andrews 
Marie Leonie Wolfs 
Anne M. Chapin 

Original Unit: 

Margaret Ashley, 1914 

Marion Bennett, 1906 

Elizabeth H. Bliss, 1908 

Marjorie Leigh Carr, 1909 

Anne M. Chapin, 1904 

Elizabeth M. Dana, 1904 

Ruth Gaines, 1901 

Harriet Boyd Hawes, 1892 

Catherine B. Hooper, 1911 

Ruth Joslin, 1912 

Maud Kelly 

Alice E. Leavens, 1903 

Millicent V. Lewis, 1907 

Lucy O. Mather, Ex-1888 

Alice Weld Tallant, 1897 

Frances W. Valentine, 1902 

Marie L. Wolfs, 1908 

Margaret G. Wood, 1912 

Mrs. Roberta Cummings, housekeeper 

Mrs. Hannah D. Andi-ews, 1904, buyer 

ReTplacements: 

Dorothy S. Ainsworth, 1918 
Hannah D. Andi-ews, 1904 
Ida B. Andrus, 1910 
Ruth Hill Arnold, 1897 
Elizabeth Biddlecome, 1904 
Dorothy H. Brown, 1913 
Mary A. Clapp, 1912 
Fannie F. Clement, 1903 

233 



234 Appendix 

Ellen T. Emerson, 1901 
Alice Evans, 1905 
Harriet Bliss Ford, 1899 
Mabel Grandin, 1909 
Rosamund Grant, 1913 
Clara M. Greenough, 1884 
Sarah B. Hackett, 1909 
Isabel La Monte, 1913 
Evelyn L. Lawrence, 1917 
Alice M. Ober, 1906 
Georgia Willis Read, Ex-1903 
Anna P. Rochester, 1911 
Anna A. Ryan, 1902 
Mary G. Stevenson, 1909 
A. Louise Studebaker, 1908 
Marjorie Talbot, 1910 
Marion Thomas, 1910 
Edna M. True, 1909 
Dorothy A. Young, 1902 

N on- Alumnae Members: 

Yvonne Bouffard 
Anna M. Gove 
Edith Griffin 
De Lan Kinney 
Marguerite Lavignot 

MEMBERS OF THE SMITH COLLEGE RELIEF UNIT COM- 
MITTEE FORMED IN JUNE, 1917 

Mrs. Helen R. Thayer, Chairman 
Mrs. AUce Wellington Lyman 
Mrs. Alice T. L. Parsons 
Mrs. Elizabeth C. Morrow 
Miss Ellen T. Emerson 
Mrs. Harriet B. Hawes 
Mrs. Blanche W. Williams 
Miss Mary B. Lewis 
Miss Louisa K. Fast 

In June, 1918, this committee was succeeded by the Smith College 
War Service Board, of which the following persons have been mem- 
bers; 

Miss Mary B. Lewis, Chairman, June, 1918, to October, 

1919 
Miss Ellen T. Emerson, Chairman, October, 1919 — 
Pres. William A. Neilson 
Miss Ada L. Comstock 



Appendix 235 



Mrs. Elizabeth C. Morrow 
Mrs. Alice T. L. Parsons 
Mrs. Helen R. Thayer 
Miss Florence H. Snow 
Mrs. Jean J. Goddard 
Mrs. Ethel W. Cone 
Miss Martha Wilson 
Miss Louisa K. Fast 
Miss Dorothy Douglas 
Miss Anne M. Paul 
Mrs. Hannah D. Andrews 
Miss Marie L. Wolfs 
Miss Margaret Hitchcock 
Miss Elizabeth Wyandt 

FINANCIAL STATEMENT 
Between June 1, 1917, and April 1, 1920, the Smith College Rehef 

Unit Committee and its successor the Smith College War Service 

Board, have received in the form of general donations, and special 

gifts, interest, etc., $241,284.17. 

The summary of their expenditures in connection with the work of 

the Smith College Relief Unit from June 1, 1917, to April 1, 1920, 

follows: 

Committee Expense $173.40 

Treasurer's Salary 1,032.40 

Treasury's Expense 735 . 37 

Pubhcity 974.37 

Songs 8.00 

Office Expense 745.96 

Exchange and Protest Fees 8 . 39 

Auditor 161 .87 

Postage, Printing, Office Supplies 1,179.71 

Cables, Telephone and Telegraph 974 . 32 

Express, Insurance and Freight 952 . 04 



Smith College Relief Unit 

Supplies to France $4, 178 . 21 

Expenses 2,643.76 

Outfits 616.93 

Drafts sent 53,774.90 

Money cabled 133,200.00 

Autos, Bicycles, Storage, 

etc 7,189.62 



5,945.83 



$201,603.42 
Salary Worker for Boy Scouts in France 1,866 . 67 

Total $210,415.92 



236 Appendix 

It should be noted that the War Service Board has maintained 
other Units with the Y.M.C.A. in France and under the Committee 
for Relief in the Near East, etc., so that the expenditures here given 
are only those connected with the Smith College Relief Unit. 

A sample monthly report of the Treasurer of the Unit, which is 
appended, gives an idea of the receipts and expenses of the Unit. 
Aside from the ordinary expenditures for the regular work of the 
Unit, during the year 1919-1920, two scholarships for nurses were 
given to Dr. Hamilton's School of Nursing in Bordeaux, to enable 
the nurses to take the full course in that school. At the same time 
two scholarships were given to Pro Gallia, the Social Service School 
in Paris, to enable two pupils of that school to take their full course 
of two years. 

When the Smith College Relief Unit finishes its work in France, 
and turns its Hombleux plant over to the Secours d'Urgence, a 
subsidy, sufficient to carry on that post for some time, will be made 
to that organization. It is our expectation that from the balance 
which the Smith College Relief Unit has in its Treasury a permanent 
fund will be created which will be sufficient to provide four scholar- 
ships similar to those described above for the benefit of French women, 
and that certain hospitals in the Somme will receive gifts to enable 
them to make much needed repairs, and to purchase necessary equip- 
ment for the continuance of their work. 

(Signed) Ellen T. Emerson, 

April 21, 1920. Chairman War Service Board. 

SMITH COLLEGE RELIEF UNIT 
FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR JUNE, 1919 

Receipts 

June 1 Cash balance 14,925 . 15 

Bank balance, Morgan, Harjes, 

Treas. Acct 251,712. 15 

Bank balance, E. Biddlecome 

acct 22,935.85 

Cash Intake 

Farm sales 54,720 . 35 

Furniture sales 3,638 . 00 

Store sales 23,437 . 25 

Motor refunds 512 . 25 

Publicity refunds ... 10 . 00 

Living refunds 3.50 

82,321.35 

Gifts 793.55 

War Service Board Remittance 159,968.00 

532,656.05 



Appendix 237 



Expenses 

Farm (Live stock, feed, tools, 

etc.) 52,244,70 

Relief 3,416.75 

Supplies and equipment 1,157 . 35 

Store (Dry goods and kitchen 

furnishings) 15,684 . 90 

Medical department 3,093 . 15 

Motor department 1,881 . 55 

Living 4,092 . 20 

Travel 270.95 

Miscellaneous 290.00 

Publicity and entertainment 21.60 

Library 1,086.85 



83,240.00 



July 1 Balance, Morgan, Harjes, Treas. 

Acct 416,992.85 

Balance, E. Biddlecome acct .... 4,024 . 00 

Cash balance 28,399 . 20 

532,656.05 

(Signed) Ellen T. Emerson, 

Treasurer, Smith College Relief Unit ' 

CONDENSED REPORT 
OF THE SMITH COLLEGE RELIEF UNIT FOR JUNE, 1919 

Report op the Doctor Total 

Dispensary visits in 11 villages. 190 

House visits 96 

286 

New patients 93 

Old patients 41 

134 

Report of Nurse 

Total cases for the month 27 

Total discharged 11 

Sent elsewhere for various reasons 11 

Visits during the month 140 

Treatments at the dispensary 18 

Visits to the dispensary 44 

Clinics 5 

Visits to the schools 2 

Inspection of the children in the schools 41 

Five children have been taken to Blerancourt for operations on 

the throat by the "American Women's Hospital." Eight more 
will be taken tomorrow, and we shall continue our care of them 
in the hospital. 



238 Appendix 

We have now a French nurse whom we are initiating into our 
work and whom we shall leave to replace us. 

Esmeet-Hallon Inspection between May 8 and June 21, 1919 

Number of children under 3 3 

Children between 3 and 15 60 

Adults, 70 and over 27 

Families 96 

Population 418 

Number of families occupying baraques 7 

ruins 89 

Average number of persons occupying each room .... 2.1 

Wells with drinkable water 27 

Wells cleaned 23 

Wells not cleaned 42 

Wells used by a single family 9 

Wells used by 87 families 18 

Number of families with privies 51 

without privies 45 

without wells or privies 29 

Farm Service. Report of Sales for June 

Cows 20 

Hens and chickens. . 1,071 

Rabbits 324 

Ducks 337 Nearly 50 quarts of milk are 

Geese 276 sold each day. 

Fertile eggs 359 

Pigs 31 

Turkeys 6 

Tools 260 

Store Report for June 

Total sales for June, 24,112.75 francs 

As all the inhabitants are furnished with the necessities the 
wholesale price is charged on purchases. 

Library 

The library bearing the name of "Elizabeth Russell," has now 700 
books. There are two tiers of fiction or history and another tier 
has books on hygiene, travel, agriculture, science. 
About 200 books are in circulation, mostly among the children. 
We have only just received books for adults and have loaned to 
those who have asked for them. We are continuing the purchase 
of books in spite of the difficulties of getting them. 

Report of the Children 
The end we have in view with the children is first to interest them, 
but we employ different methods for their physical and moral de- 



Appendix 239 

velopment. We meet difficulties because of the differences of age, 

which prevent the making of groups. 

The villages are divided into two categories: 

(1) Those in which there are schools. 

(2) Those in which there are no schools. 

In the villages where there are schools we have classes in gymnas- 
tics given during school hours. In other villages we have classes 
in sewing and knitting. The classes are followed by games and 
exercises. 

On June 15 we had a party for the children, 160 taking part. After 
the different games and refreshments, they went to Vespers at the 
church in Grecourt. 

Report of the Classes in Gymnastics 

Total classes in the 3 villages with schools 39 

children 110 

Total classes in the 9 villages without schools 35 

children 120 

Report of Visits to Inbividuals and Gifts 

93 visits have been made in the various villages and the following 
articles have been given: 

Total 

Stoves 20 

Tables 4 

Mattresses 27 

Beds 5 

Single beds 4 

Chairs 8 

Coverings 2 

— 71 articles 

LETTER FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
COMMENDING THE UNIT'S WORK 

REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE 

Ministere de ITnterieur 
S.R.R.E. 

Nesle, le 4 Novembre 1917. 
Le Delegu^ au Contr61e de la Reorganisation 
des Regions Lib^rees, 
a Madame la Directrice , 

au SMITH COLLEGE, a GRECOURT. 
Madame: 

J'ai I'honneur de vous accuser reception du rapport si interessant 
et si complet que vous avez bien voulu m'adresser sur I'oeuvre ac- 
complie par vous et vos collaboratrices depuis votre arrivee a Grecourt. 



240 Appendix 

Je vous remei'cie bien vivement, et permettez-moi de vous feliciter, 
pour les soins que vous prodiguez avec tant de generosite aux mal- 
heureux habitants d'une region si terriblement eprouvee. 

Votre programme de travaux est parfaitement etabli et, en par- 
ticulier, vos efforts pour les enfants meritent une approbation speciale. 
h'5*Si vous voulez bien continuer a me tenir au courant de votre ac- 
tion, vous faciliterez I'organisation d'une indispensable coordination 
des secours que je voudrais rendre reelement effective ici. Croyez 
que de mon cote je ferai tout ce qui est en mon pouvoir poxir faciliter 
votre developpement, pour !e plus grand bien de nos compatriotes 
victimes de la barbaric allemande. 

Veuillez agreer, Madame, I'assurance de ma consideration la plus 
distinguee. 

G. QUELLIEN. 



LETTER FROM THE MILITARY COMMANDER OF THE 
DISTRICT COMMENDING THE UNIT'S WORK 

Ct. 

Major de Secteur 

Oise Nord 

Miss Tallant, Dr. en medecine 20-12-17. 

Chateau de Robecourt 
a Grecourt. 
Mademoiselle, 

Je ne peux pas quitter le commandement de mon secteur des pays 
reoccupes sans vous exprimer les sentiments de profonde admiration 
en meme temps que de tres vive gratitude que m'inspirent les in- 
appreciables services que vous rendez depuis bientot six mois, vous 
Miss Kelly, vos infirmieres et toutes vos compagnes de Smith College, 
a la malheureuse population des pays devastes par les Huns . . . 

Sans vous et celles qui vous secondent si bien, les nombreux malades 
d'une population composee uniquement d'etres faibles, femmes, vieil- 
lards, enfants (puisque les hommes sont soldats ou bien emmenes en 
captivite par I'ennemi) seraient abandonnes presque sans secours. 
En effet nos ressources de toutes sortes sont forcement insuflEsantes 
devant I'immensite de la tache, tout specialement au point de vue 
medical. . . . 

Veuillez bien agreer. Mademoiselle, I'assurance que je considere 
comme un honneur aussi bien que comme une tres vive satisfaction 
I'occasion qui m'est donnee de manifester hautement I'estime profonde 
et I'admiration sans reserve que je professe pour vous et pour les 
nobles femmes venues des Etats-Unis avec vous au secours des 
Frangais victimes du Boche. 

Votre tres respectueux et devoue, 

(Signed) A. Monin. 



Appendix 241 

CITATION 

Medaille d' Argent de la "Reconnaisance Frangaise" 
Smith College relief unit, societe americaine: cette formation s'est 
occupee, depuis I'automne 1917, a soulanger les populations civiles 
eprouvees. A apporte une aide morale et materielle precieuse aux 
habitants des regions de la Somme liberies apres la retraite allemande 
de mars 1917. Au cours de la retraite de I'armee britannique, en 
mars 1918, a apporte a la mission frangaise et a I'armee britannique 
un concours inestimable pour I'evacuation de la population civile. 
Les infirmieres americaines de cette formation conduisant des pe- 
tites voitures sanitaires automobiles ont parcouru inlassablement, jour 
et nuit, les localites k evacuer sans souci du danger, ni de la fatigue, 
allant chercher des habitants jusque dans les regions bombardes et 
faisant preuve en maintes circonstances de calme et de bravoure. 

Mile. Valentine, de nationalite americaine, membre de la Croix 
Rouge americaine de New York: a aide, sous le bombardement, 
durant I'offensive de mars et avril 1918, a I'evacuation des malades, 
des vieillards et des enfants et a I'etablissement de cantines et dortoirs 
sur le front de Montdidier, Poix et Beauvais. A deja pres de trois ans 
de service et s'occupe actuellement du ravitaillement de trente villages. 
Mile. Wolfs, de nationalite americaine, membre de la Croix Rouge 
americaine de New York: a aide sous le bombardement, dm-ant 
I'ofPensive de mars et avril 1918, a I'evacuation des malades, des 
vieillards et des enfants et h I'etablissement de cantines et dortoirs 
sur le front de Montdidier, Poix et Beauvais. A deja pres de trois 
ans de service et s'occupe actuellement du ravitaillement de trente 
villages. Journal Officiel du 7 Fev. 1920. 

School of Hombleux, 
Mademoiselle the Directress, and Ladies : 

The first day of the year, in France, is the day on which one pre- 
sents his good wishes to all whom he loves. 

So we, the little pupils of the boys' school of Hombleux, would be 
remiss in oiu* duty if we did not come on this occasion to present ours 
for the year which has begun. 

We offer to you the most ardent wishes we can make. We hope 
that this year of 1920 will smile upon you and give you all the happi- 
ness which you deserve. 

We shall never forget that we owe you most grateful appreciation 
for all that you have done for us. We are poor, we possess nothing 
that we could offer you in remtmbrd.nce of this New Year's Day. 
However, our teacher has told us that we have our hearts with which 
to love and bless you. These hearts we offer you; they will be the 
best token of our gratitude. 

When you return to your noble country, the void caused by your 
departure will be great for us, but in spite of the distance, be sure 
that we shall never forget "the good American ladies of Gr^court." 



242 



Appendix 



Please accept. Mademoiselle the Directress, and Ladies, the as- 
surance of our most respectful regard. 

For the pupils of the Boys' School of Hombleux. 

The first in the class, Ltjcien Baillet. 

COMMUNE OF SANCOURT 

Comparative Statistical Survey 



Number of houses . . . 
Population 

Farmers 

Farm hands 

Grocers 

Farriers 

Wheelwrights 

Harness makers . . . 

Contractors 

Masons 

Dressmakers 

Factories 

Stores 

Various industries . . . 
Number of farms .... 

Number of hectares 

cultivated .... 

Number of vegetable 

gardens 

Value 

Number of orchards . . 

Value 

Wheat, area 

Value 

Oats, area 

Value 

Sugar beets, area .... 

Value 

Alfalfa, area 

Value 

Clover, area 

Value 

Potatoes, area 

Value 



1914 



123 

Men. . .129 

Women 142 

Children 82 

Total 353 

16 

230 

4 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2 







16 



632 



117 
35,100 francs 



3,000 
214 

218,280 

190 

190,000 

147 

205,800 

48 

28,800 

16 

9,600 

12 

18,000 



trancs 

hectares 

francs 

hectares 

francs 

hectares 

francs 

hectares 

francs 

hectares 

francs 

hectares 

francs 



1919 



2 in bad 
condition 

Men 63 

Women. . 64 

Children 27 

Total 154 

11 

120 

1 
1 



1 
1 





11 indififer- 
ently equipped 

120 

48 
28,800 francs 
8 
4,000 francs 

8 hectares 
24,000 francs 

23 hectares 
69,000 francs 



10 hectares 
seed for crops in 1920 

5 
seed for crops in 1920 
4 hectares 
20,000 francs 



Appendix 



243 



COMMUNE OF SANCOURT 

Comparative Statistical Survey — Cord. 



Live Stock 

Horses 

Oxen 

Cows 

Donkeys 

Pigs 

Sheep 

Goats 

Rabbits 

Poultry of all kinds, 
including pigeons 

Farm Equipment 

Wagons 

Wains 

Carts . 

Carriages 

Harvesters 

Mowers 

Rakes 

Plows 

Rollers 

Weeders 

Cultivators 

Harrows 

Heavy harrows .... 

Hay-rakes 

Seeders 



1914 



Num- 
ber 



130 

20 

160 

3 

40 

500 



700 



11 

20 
27 
16 
15 
15 
15 



16 
40 
8 
10 
31 



Value 



1200f. 

800 

600 

150 

150 

50 

30 

3 



1000 

500 
500 
800 
900 
350 
200 
300 
250 
200 
120 
90 
250 
200 
500 



Total 
Value 



156,000f, 

16,000 

96,000 

450 

6,000 

25,000 

180 

1,200 

2,100 



11,000 

10,000 

13,500 

12,800 

13,500 

5,250 

3,000 

8,700 

5,000 

5,800 

1,920 

3,600 

2,000 

2,000 

15,500 



1919 



Num- 
ber 



47 



38 



4 

112 

10 

100 





10 

10 

7 

3 

6 

5 

10 



Value 



2500f, 



2000 



400 

200 

125 

15 

15 





1600 

1500 

2000 

2700 

1000 

650 

900 

650 

600 

400 

270 

700 

600 

1700 



Total 
Value 



117,500f. 



76,000 



1,600 

22,400 

1,250 

1,500 




16,000 

15,000 
14,000 
8,100 
6,000 
3,250 
9,000 
5,200 
4,800 
800 
2,700 
2,100 
1,800 
8,500 



The enumeration of these various articles is necessarily very in- 
complete, since farming equipment comprises a host of objects be- 
longing indoors; separators, pressers, grinders, churns, crushers, 
choppers, chafif-cutters, pumps, presses, fanning mills, sorters, etc. 
K the agricultural loss is to be reckoned, there should be added also 
all the harness. It should be understood that everything was 
destroyed. 



244 Appendix 



COMMUNE OF SANCOURT 
Comparative Statistical Stjevet — Cont. 



During the German Occupation 
Number of civil prisoners .... 15 

Number of soldiers 47 

Number of women prisoners . 
Property destroyed or taken: 

All the destruction was done 
by the Germans after they 
had carried off a part of the 
population to the north of 
France, and the other part to 
Rouy-le-Petit, near Nesle. 
During the absence of the in- 
habitants, the village was 
burned. Nothing was taken 
during the occupation, nor de- 
stroyed, except the crops. 
During the German Retreat 

Population, [Men 16 

from March, 1917, to March, 1918, 58 personsj V/omen 25 

[Children 17 

Farms cultivated: 5 farmers tried to farm with the aid of the army, 
and chance assistance, with some implements 
they recovered. 
Agricultural Material: 

Horses 10 

Oxen 

Cows 13 

Sheep 

Donkeys 

Pigs 

Rabbits 20 

Poultry 30 

After the Armistice 
Locahties where the civilian prisoners were: In Germany and in 

different places 
Localities where the refugees of 1918 were: Part in the north, at 

Teignier, and part 
scattered in the unin- 
vaded territory 

How many soldiers died on the field of honor.'' 5 

How many soldiers died in captivity.'' 

How many refugees died dui'ing the evacuation? 12 

How many civilian prisoners disappeared? 3 



Appendix 245 



COMMUNE OF EPPEVILLE 

(Department of the Somme, Arrondissement of Peronne, Canton of 

Ham) 

Description. The commune of Eppeville is divided into three sec- 
tions; Eppeville (about 150 inhabitants), the hamlet of Verlaines 
(about 300 inhabitants) and the annex of St. Gregoire (about 550 
inhabitants) as one approaches the railroad station of Ham. 

Eppeville and Verlaines used to be essentially agricultural. St. 
Gregoire used to be the industrial section (sugar refinery, electric 
plant, warehouse covering several acres, oil mill, work shops for the 
making of agricultural instruments). 

The country was rich, the soil very fertile, there were pretty cot- 
tages with little gardens; the inhabitants lived at ease. 

The Occupation. On August 29, 1914, the Germans took possession 
of the commune. They commenced at once making requisitions; in 
the warehouses they found six million francs' worth of sugar and 
molasses. 

From August 29, 1914, to March 19, 1917, they occupied Eppe- 
ville, compelling the inhabitants to work for them, levying perqui- 
sitions and requisitions, sending away to Germany those who dis- 
pleased them, every day issuing proclamations, giving orders, mal- 
treating the populace. 

On July 2, 1916, an alarm! The Germans finding themselves 
menaced sent into the Department of the North, the men from 15 to 
50 years of age. Alas ! A month later they sent them back. 

First Departure of the Germans. On February 10, 1917, they sent 
away 110 men from 15 to 60 years of age, 22 women and girls, and 
on March 19, 1917, they made their famous strategic retreat on St. 
Quentin. But before leaving, they took away or destroyed the 
movable fm-niture, evacuated to Ham the inhabitants who remained, 
burned the houses, cut the fruit trees. 

For a year the ruins of the commune were occupied by French 
soldiers, and then in January, 1918, by English soldiers; about 500 
inhabitants had remained. Life there was not gay, carried on always 
under bombardment by aeroplanes. 

Return of the Germans. Then, on March 22, 1918, the Germans 
erupted from St. Quentin, all the population was evacuated in a few 
hours, the Boches took possession again of Eppeville, and were arrest- 
ed fifteen kilometers from Amiens. 

Today. On September 6, 1918, our enemies quitted Eppeville 
anew, at the victorious push of the Allies, and little by little the in- 
habitants began to come back to their ruins. Today 600 have re- 
tm-ned, lodging in baraques, in cellars, in stables, in shelters which 
they have constructed themselves. 

The Role of America. During the occupation, from August 29, 
1914, to March 19, 1917, the Germans having taken possession of 
everything, requisitioned horses and cows, penned up the hens, the 



246 Appendix 

population saw itself at the point of lacking the necessities of life. 
It is then that America sent us food; it was opportune. The in- 
habitants were rationed; the distribution of provisions was made 
under the control of the municipality. 

The American Ladies. In April, 1917, the doctors left our region. 
The sick were cared for with the greatest devotion by the American 
doctors installed in the ruins of the Chateau of Grecourt. They fur- 
nished us at the same time the necessary medicines, everything 
being without charge. After the second departiu-e of the Boches, in 
September, 1918, we saw again the auto of these good ladies halt 
before the doors, to lavish upon all the words which comfort, the care 
which gives health, and the material gifts of all kinds which are in- 
dispensable to life. 

With all our hearts, we say to them: Thanks. 

The Battles. Eppeville is situated in the valley of the Somme. 
There it could not escape skirmishes and artillery combats, as the 
numerous ammunition dumps testify. The great struggles of the 
infantry took place on the neighboring heights, and on the surround- 
ing plain. In spite of that, many Germans and many French soldiers 
are buried in the cemetery and in the fields. 

The Soldiers. 29 soldiers of Eppeville were killed by the enemy, 
25 of the inhabitants died during the evacuations, and several were 
killed by bombs. How many have contracted the germs of incurable 
maladies ! 

Conclusion. The Germans, during the occupation, had installed 
their "Kommandantur" at the town hall. "You must," they said, 
"obey us; we are the masters of the world. It is you who are stay- 
ing with us." 

They exacted from the inhabitants the most passive obedience, 
they deported and maltreated a great number of them, and left us, 
according to their own expression, nothing but our two eyes with 
which to weep. 

Devillers, F., Teacher 
Eppeville, September 10, 1919. Secretary to the Mayor. 




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